


Feel You Falling

by aewgliriel



Series: The Light That's Leading Me [1]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Hot Tub Sex, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Oral Sex, Romance, Shower Sex, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-13
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 07:56:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9312479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aewgliriel/pseuds/aewgliriel
Summary: After narrowly escaping Scarif as the sole survivors, Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor find themselves navigating an unknown path forward together.





	1. Chapter 1

_Scarif_   
_The Outer Rim Territories_

  
“No, leave it! Leave him. That's it.” Cassian pulled her close, and she would have fought but for the way his touch tamed her anger. “That's it. Let's go.”

  
Reluctantly, Jyn let him drag her away from the man in white. She knew he was right. If they wanted any chance of getting away, they had to go now. The tower vibrated with the explosions on the ground, along with falling debris from the two Star Destroyers crashing down towards them.

  
“Do you think anyone is listening?” Cassian asked. He limped, his arm around her shoulders. After the fall he'd taken, he had to be in a lot of pain, more pain than the deep, burning ache in her hip and shoulders.

  
“I do. Someone’s out there.” She had to believe the signal had gotten through. The alternative was too devastating. If they'd gotten this far, only to be thwarted, what then?

  
Jyn's legs shook as they stumbled to the lift. Pain rocketed up and down her thigh, and only Cassian's grip on her, the two of them leaning into each other, kept her upright. They got into the lift and the doors closed, the interior light flickering as it descended. Cassian leaned against the wall, holding his injured arm close to his side. Jyn met his gaze, dark and intense, and the expression there stole her breath. She pressed closer, uncertain what to say, not sure if anything needed to be said.

  
Force, she wanted to kiss him suddenly.

  
“He got here somehow,” she said, shoving the urge aside. They didn't have time for that. “Maybe we can escape in that.”

  
“Krennic,” Cassian said. “The bastard’s name is Krennic.”  
  
She filed that away for future reference, like toasting the man's death. As soon as she had something to drink, she would sing praises to the blaster bolt that had cut him down at last.

  
They'd both felt the explosion from the stolen shuttle, knew Bodhi was gone. From the glimpse down to the ground Jyn had gotten from the platform, she knew they were the only ones left. It was carnage, and the very air around them seemed to scream at all the death.

  
Cassian nodded. He leaned in, just a breath away. She tensed, certain he was about to kiss her…

  
He reached over and pressed the control to stop the lift. It shuddered to a halt and the doors opened. “There is a private landing pad on level three,” he said. “K2 mentioned it. He would be there, I think. We must hurry.”

  
She swallowed a pang of disappointment, mentally kicked herself. They didn't have time for such foolish things. It could get them killed.

  
The lift deposited them just outside the area where they'd first accessed the data vault. There were two stormtroopers there, gleefully kicking something around amidst the sprawled bodies of their colleagues. With a pang, Jyn realized it was K2’s head, separated from his body. Before she could stop him, Cassian had raised his blaster and shot both soldiers.

  
She didn't argue when he scooped up the head to take with them. He'd stopped her from going after Krennic, but there was a chance there was still information in K2’s head about the Rebellion. They couldn't leave it. Logically, she knew that. But part of her had really wanted to shove Krennic over the edge and watch him fall fifteen stories to splat on the ground.

  
They encountered no one else on their way out. Everyone was outside, she supposed, or dead. Hoping Cassian knew where he was going, she followed, having confiscated one of the trooper’s rifles. But she didn't need it.

  
There was, indeed, an Imperial shuttle on the private landing platform. “Come on,” she said urgently, as she saw Cassian falter. “We have to hurry.”

  
She grabbed his good arm and hauled him aboard. A pilot waited there, anxiously watching everything through the transparisteel cockpit window. Without hesitation, Jyn raised the rifle and shot the man in the head. She dragged the body out of the seat so Cassian could sit down, then kicked it to roll down the ramp. She slapped her palm on the button to close the door.

  
The shuttle was already prepped. Cassian took a breath, pushing away the pain, and worked the controls to lift the shuttle off the pad. The small ship turned, headed for the sky.

  
A blast of green light shot by overhead, crashing through the transmitter at the top of the tower. Chunks of debris fell, and Cassian jerked the controls, swearing in Huttese, to evade the worst of it. The robot head he'd set in the copilot seat rolled to the floor with a clank.

  
“Go,” Jyn breathed, terror nearly rendering her mute. She didn't want to die here. “Just jump.”

  
He nodded and yanked the hyperdrive lever. A short hop would at least get them away, and whatever the Death Star had just done had disrupted the planet’s gravity well enough to let them make that jump, just like on Jedha.

  
They escaped the explosion with seconds to spare, the view around them streaking into the swirl of hyperspace.

  
Neither relaxed until then, and Cassian collapsed back against the seat, breathing hard.

  
Jyn left him for a moment, hunting through the storage compartments for a medkit. She found one under the starboard troop bench and popped the latch open. It was fully stocked, which was a huge relief.

  
Grabbing a handful of bacta patches and a pain reliever, she limped back to Cassian. “Let's get that blaster burn taken care of.”

  
He nodded and turned in the chair, reaching up to undo his shirt. His hands shook as he did. Jyn brushed them away.

  
“Let me,” she murmured. “Just sit back.”

  
She unfastened the shirt and drew the edges apart, exposing his chest. She had to make herself concentrate on his injuries and not on the muscles or chest hair.

  
The bolt had burned through his shirt and, miraculously, only grazed across the upper pectoral and his shoulder, instead of penetrating into his heart. Krennic had terrible aim, she thought. Anger burned in her again, but she tamped it down. He was dead, killed by his precious weapon. He couldn't have had a more fitting end.

  
Cassian’s entire rib cage was bruised from his fall, and he likely had some broken ribs. But he was breathing clearly, so she didn't think his lungs were punctured. Jyn smoothed a large bacta patch over the burn, then let her hands slide down, gently checking his ribs. He hissed in pain in a few places, but didn't stop her.

  
“I don't think you have any internal bleeding,” she said. “But we should get back to the Alliance and get you checked out.”

  
He caught her hand. “What about your injuries?” Cassian asked softly. “You are limping, too.”

  
Jyn smiled wryly. “Banged my hip while climbing. I'm fine.”

  
She wasn't, but the lie was automatic. Her shoulder hurt from pulling herself back up onto the catwalk. It didn't matter, though. She'd heal with time and rest. His injuries concerned her more, like the cut on his cheek.

  
Then she reached up with her free hand, brushed the hair out of his eyes. Cassian shifted his grip on her other hand, twining his fingers with hers, and her breath caught.

  
“Jyn,” he whispered.

  
Abruptly, their short hyperspace jump ended and they reverted to realspace. Jyn nearly fell into him. She grabbed the seat to keep from doing just that. Cassian released her hand and shifted to consult the computer.

  
“We are still in the Outer Rim,” he said. “Near Hutt Space now. We could hide on Nar Shaddaa.”

  
She shook her head. “In an Imperial shuttle? No. Let's get back to Yavin.”

  
He nodded. Wordlessly, he began making the necessary calculations with the navicomputer. The longer they were in realspace, the more nervous Jyn was, and she fought not to fidget over it.

  
Finally, Cassian made the first jump, into one of the smaller hyperspace lanes skirting Hutt Space. It would take them around the Rim side, past Barab, and they could hook into the Kessel Run to the Perlemian Trade Route. They could cut across past Kashyyyk and hook up to the Hydian Way that way, but it actually wasn't as fast as going coreward and doing it at Brentaal, he explained. Jyn didn't pretend to understand hyperspace travel and was content to let Cassian figure it out. Saw had let her pilot a few times, before he'd ditched her, but she'd never gained a knack for it. Give her a blaster or a blade and she could fight. Flying? Not so much.

  
“We will contact Yavin when we're closer, let them know we have a stolen shuttle,” he said. “But we are still three, maybe four days out.”

  
“You need to rest,” she said. “It's not the most comfortable, but you can stretch out on one of the benches.”

  
Cassian stood with a tired nod. Jyn hadn't thought to step back, and they were suddenly way too close in the confines of the cockpit. She sucked in a breath, remembering the look on his face in the turbolift, the urge she'd had then and denied.

  
He reached up, threaded his fingers into her hair, which she only realised as he did had given up and tumbled out of her bun. And then he was kissing her, mouth hard and insistent, and Jyn let him. No, not let him. She revelled in it, sliding her hands over his bare chest to wrap her arms around his neck.

  
Knowing he felt the same was heady. It was probably fuelled by adrenaline and the knowledge they'd survived, but she wanted it, wanted him, as she'd never wanted anyone else.

  
Cassian dropped back into the pilot’s seat, hauling Jyn into his lap. She straddled him, gasping at the rush of need that surged through her. He took advantage of her parted lips and deepened the kiss, tongue searching out hers.

  
Jyn didn't know if this was a good idea, but she didn't care. The tension between them, which had started as something akin to hatred, flared into blind desire. She knew they shouldn't, at the very least because he was hurt, but when his hands slid down to tug her shirt hem out of her pants, she threw caution to the wind and let him.

  
\-----

  
Cassian wasn't sure how they'd ended up on the floor of the shuttle, but he woke to find Jyn sound asleep with her head pillowed on the burn-free side of his chest, her brown hair spilled over his shoulder. The two of them lay on their discarded clothes. It wasn't comfortable, but better than bare metal.

  
He ran his fingers idly through the dirty, tangled strands, smiling to himself. Was it only two weeks ago that they'd met? So much had happened, it felt like longer. He'd gone from finding her irritating to, well, this. And he absolutely didn't regret it. There was something about her that made him feel alive again, like he could be a good man again.

  
Was it love? He didn't know if he could call it that yet, but she moved him in a way he'd never felt before.

  
They'd done it. They'd gotten the plans to the Rebellion, and they'd escaped. This between them, though, hadn't been part of any plan. He'd wanted to strangle her when they'd met. But somewhere along the way, he'd started to like her. He liked Jyn’s courage and conviction, liked the way her green eyes seemed to glow when they'd gotten the transmission out.

  
He'd expected to die on Scarif. Jyn remembering the shuttle at the last minute couldn't have been anything less than the Force, Cassian thought.

  
He'd felt so guilty on the ridge on Eadu, aiming that rifle at her father. It wasn't a reluctance to kill that had kept him from pulling the trigger. It was picturing Jyn's face at the news of her father’s death, how he couldn't bear to be the one to do that to her, that had sent him scrambling to get her, defying his orders.

  
Galen Erso had died anyway, but he hadn't done it. He'd tried to stop the fighters. And he still felt a twinge of that guilt, even knowing he hadn't sent for those X-Wings.

  
He shifted, grimacing at the pull on his injured ribs, and looked at her face, relaxed in sleep. Cassian thought she looked impossibly young then, though he knew she was only four years younger than his twenty-six. When was the last time she'd really relaxed? Considering they'd rescued her from an Imperial prison on Wobani--thank the Force she hadn't been on Kessel!--it had likely been a while.

  
He brushed the curve of her cheek with his fingertips. She was reckless, impertinent, defiant, rebellious. Beautiful. Strong. Smart. He'd never known a woman like her before.

  
She woke, green eyes squinting for a moment. Then Jyn smiled sleepily.

  
“Hullo,” she whispered. “How's the shoulder?”

  
“What shoulder?” he asked, though to be honest, it hurt more than a little. His ribs were worse, but the pain reliever she'd given him was still in effect and he wasn't in too much agony. The sex probably, no, definitely hadn't helped, but he didn't care. He'd needed her more than anything else in that span of time.

  
Jyn's heart-shaped face turned pink, the smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks vanishing. Cassian grinned and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

  
She turned her gaze to his vividly-bruised chest. “You're going to be sore for days,” she observed.

  
“Better than the alternative,” he pointed out. “How is your hip?”

  
She twisted to look. A palm-sized purple lump rode her hipbone. Her legs and arms were scraped and bruised from the many injuries she'd sustained recently, such as that explosion on Eadu. But nothing was as impressive as that. Jyn made a face at it.

  
Cassian levered up onto his good arm and frowned. “Would you like me to kiss it better?” he asked, voice husky.

  
He heard the catch of breath, took that as assent. Shifting stiffly, he bent to press his mouth to her hip. As it had since they'd met, the need of her overrode everything else, even his pain.

  
“Cassian,” she breathed. “You don't need to-”

  
With his injured hand on her thigh, he gently pushed her to lie on her back. She went willingly, belying her protest, and he slid his lips low across her belly. He turned his eyes up, found her watching him. He returned to her hip, hooked his hand behind her knee, and began kissing his way up her thigh as he lifted her leg.

  
Cassian brushed a kiss over a scrape on her knee, then licked a line up the inside of her thigh. Jyn let out a whimper and he grinned. He nuzzled against her damp curls and she made a sound he'd never heard from her before.

  
He didn't think anyone had done this for her. She was no virgin, but this was more intimate than what they'd done before, that quick and desperate mating. Jyn kept people at a distance; he could see her using sex to her advantage, but not this. This required trust.

  
He parted her netherlips and darted his tongue in to circle her clit. Jyn's hand went to his hair and she pushed up towards his mouth with a surprised cry of pleasure.

  
Cassian licked between her folds, sucked at her inner labia, before drawing the nub of her clit between his lips. Jyn moaned beneath him, head dropping back and body arching.

  
He didn't have the stamina to do this as long as he'd have liked to, but he got her wet and panting. Gasping from the effort, he dropped back to the floor.

  
Jyn was clearly disappointed that he'd stopped, but knew why he had. She sat up, straddling him as she had in the chair, and bent to pepper his chest with feather-light kisses. Her lips brushed over every bruise on his torso, down his stomach. He was already half-erect from administering to her, and she wrapped her small hands around him, lazily stroking from root to head and back, watching his face.

  
When he was fully hard, she lowered herself onto his erection, taking him all the way to the hilt. Cassian gripped her slender hips as she rolled them.

  
Jyn gasped, face flushed, and her hands went to her pert breasts, cupping them. She bit her lip, never taking her eyes off his face as she rode him. It was the hottest thing he'd ever seen.

  
Eventually, she leaned forward, hands braced to either side of his head, and breathing heavily with exertion, moved hard and fast over him. Cassian shifted his hands to her breasts, rolling the pink tips between his rough and calloused fingers. They were small but fit his hands perfectly.

  
“Come for me,” he rasped. “Come for me, Jyn.”

  
“You first,” she breathed.

  
“Together, then.”

  
He reached between them to find her clit and stroked it in small, fast glances over the engorged head. Jyn whined and ground down on him, breathing hard.

  
He felt her clench him as she came and let himself go, spilling hot inside her as she shook with her orgasm. Cassian pushed up to catch her mouth with his. She leaned hungrily into the kiss, making a pleased sound. They stayed like that until their hearts had slowed and they'd caught their breath.

  
Jyn sat up after a while, still with him inside her. “Mmm. We should make this a tradition. Escape death, roll around on the floor.”

  
He chuckled, though doing so hurt. Her brows drew together at his pained expression.

  
“You're hurt, and here I've mauled you twice,” she said with dismay. “Bad Jyn!”

  
Cassian caught her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing her palm. “Very, very good Jyn,” he corrected. “Though I would like some time in a bacta tank so that I can repay the favour properly.”

  
“We'll be home soon,” she said.

  
“You think of the Rebellion as home?”

  
Jyn turned shy suddenly, gaze dropping to his chest. “I'm beginning to. And you're the one that said it in the first place.”

  
She was right. He'd been the one to tell her “welcome home”. Surprisingly, he'd actually meant it.

  
Though now he was starting to think of her as home, more than the Rebellion. And he wasn't sure what to think of that.


	2. Chapter 2

_The Colonies Region_

  
There wasn't much to do on the shuttle. They had some rations, enough to get them to Yavin, and the shuttle had a minuscule refresher that was smaller than the one in Jyn's cell on Wobani. That was it. The benches were narrow and only one of them could sleep at a time.

  
Mostly, they sat, half dressed, in the cockpit area and talked. She told him of her parents and her childhood. He spoke of his. His had been gone longer, and he'd been younger, so couldn't recall them as well. And he told her about his brother, Torean, a pilot with Blue Squadron and a close associate of General Merrick, who commanded the Rebellion’s starfighters. Torean, he said, was two years older and had been his protector growing up.

  
Jyn leaned her head against seat, reached across the space to hold his hand. “When we get back to the base,” she began, then stopped. She frowned a little. “We disobeyed orders to do this. What will we face there?”

  
“I don't know,” he admitted. “But they came and helped us.”

  
“They did. Still… What happens to me? I did those things the Empire imprisoned me for. I don't deny that. Do I go back to prison now that I've served my purpose?”

  
“That clearly doesn't matter to the council,” he reminded her. “And Mon Mothma did say you would go free. Though I do think they feel we are... disposable.”

  
“We could just… not go back.”

  
His expression said he'd considered it. He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles, looking at her from under the fringe of his hair, head down. Something about that made Jyn's stomach do flips, and not in a bad way.

  
She drew the front of his borrowed shirt closed. Hers was spread on the back of one of the benches to dry, washed somewhat hastily in the ‘fresher. It wasn't perfect, but it would serve til they got back to base.

  
Cassian dragged his gaze off the deep neck of the shirt, smirking a little. Then his expression turned sober. “They could very well think us dead. But if they ever found us, we would be labelled traitors, defectors.”

  
“Like we aren't already?” Jyn asked quietly. “We stole the shuttle and made an unauthorised assault on the Empire.”

  
“We had to get those plans, Jyn. There was no other way. Better to ask forgiveness than permission in this case.”

  
She looked down at their clasped hands. “Everyone died but us. I thought we would, too, but we didn't, and now I feel…”

  
“Everyone knew that there was a chance we wouldn't make it. We volunteered anyway. The odds of us dying were over ninety-eight percent.” Cassian smiled wryly. “K2 told me that.”

  
“I'm sorry about him. I know he was your friend.”

  
He shrugged, not meeting her eyes. Jyn didn't know what it was like, having friends, until Cassian. She had vague memories of kids she'd played with at the age of five or so, but she hadn't had anyone since the Empire had taken her father and killed her mother. Saw Gerrera’s people were not what she'd call friends.

  
“I liked Chirrut, and Baze, and Bodhi,” she said softly. “Chirrut especially. There was something about him that just made you trust him.”

  
He nodded. “He told me, while you were sleeping on the way to Scarif, that he had trained with the Jedi. He wasn't strong enough in the Force to be one, so he was a guardian of the temple instead. He didn't know why the Emperor didn't kill him, like he has killed all other Force sensitives the Empire has found.”

  
“I was only two years old when the Purge happened. Saw knew Jedi, once upon a time, but I never met any. My parents knew a few, too, I think.”

  
Cassian plucked up the Kyber crystal that hung between her breasts. “Where did you get this?”

  
“From my mother. She gave it to me the day she died. She always wore it. I don't know where it came from or how she got it, but the last thing she said to me was to trust the Force.”

  
He let it go, watching it settle back into place. Slipping his hand inside the shirt, he cupped her breast. Her nipple pebbled against his palm, warmth pooling low in her belly at his touch. She'd never wanted a man like she did him. Sure, she'd traded sex for favours while on the run, but it hadn't been anything like this.

  
For the first time, she wanted to be with someone, to be close and to share everything. That it was with Cassian, whom she'd wanted to punch in the face just days ago, was startling.

  
“Jyn,” he said, voice dropping low in a way that made that warmth spark into desire. “I do not plan on this between us ending when we reach Yavin.”

  
She smiled tremulously. “I don't, either.”

  
“Good.”

  
He pulled her into his lap, spreading the shirt front wide, and bent his head, closing his lips over the nipple he'd been teasing. She buried her fingers in his hair, sighing at the pull of his mouth on her breast.

  
The ship dropped out of hyperspace with a jolt that sent Jyn tumbling to the floor. She cracked her head on the console and lay stunned, blinking amidst the bright spots flooding her vision.

  
Cassian was a little too occupied to help her up, throwing the shuttle into evasive maneuvers. “Interdictor!” he told her. “I don't think they’ve seen us yet. They're facing the other way.”

  
Groggily, Jyn climbed to her feet, dropping into the other seat and reaching for the copilot controls. She wasn't a great pilot, but could probably work the minimal guns this thing had.

  
Cassian stopped their forward movement and reversed thrusters, the shuttle gliding backwards, out of range of the Star Destroyer. Jyn's head pounded, and when she reached up to the back of her head, she found blood in her hair.

  
“Oh, stang,” she muttered. “I'm bleeding.”

  
Cassian shot her a worried look. “Are you alright?”

  
“I've had worse. Let's get out of here, worry about my head later.” She was disappointed that they'd been interrupted, but the mood was definitely gone now.

  
He dropped the ship down, below the huge Imperial ship. They'd dropped out of hyperspace near Carida, just off the Perlemian Trade Route. The navicomp said they were just on the outer reach of the system. They should have passed with no problem, but the interdictor had yanked them out with an artificial gravity well.

  
“I miscalculated,” Cassian admitted in an undertone. “It was easier with K2.”

  
She nodded in silence, hating the way the corners of his mouth pinched at the mention. “How far off course are we?”

  
“About a light hour, maybe two,” he said. “I'm recalculating now.”

  
She flexed her hands on the guns. The Empire didn't bother with shields or weaponry on most of its ships, TIEs being infamous for their lack of shielding, referred to galaxy-wide as “rocket propelled tin cans”. But this had been Director Krennic’s personal shuttle and it had not only a fair amount of shielding, but the latest hyperdrive and an array of weaponry. Still wouldn't do them a lick of good against a Star Destroyer.

  
“Jumping in three… two… one.”

  
The shuttle lurched forward, into the swirl of hyperspace. Jyn pried her hands off the guns and sat back, groaning as the cockpit interior decided to imitate the view outside.

  
Cassian was on his feet in an instant, despite his injuries. He gently pushed her head forward so he could see the damage.

  
“It's not so bad,” he informed her after a moment of careful prodding. “Head wounds bleed like a stuck Hutt, but the cut is small, not deep.”

  
He fetched a few things from the medkit and cleaned it up, stuck a small bacta patch over the cut. It wasn't perfect, her hair tangling in the adhesive, but it would do for now.

  
Then he pressed a kiss to the spot just under her ear, and she shivered.

  
“You'll have a nasty lump,” he continued. “Let me look at your eyes, check for a concussion.”

  
Jyn let him check her pupils with one of the glowrods stored under the seats. She knew he'd killed people before, had worked as an assassin, but he was nothing but gentle with her. She didn't care about his past. They'd both done things, taken lives, many of them on Scarif alone.

  
It was what they did from here that mattered.

  
“No concussion that I can see.” He surprised her by kissing her forehead. “I'm sorry you were hurt.”

  
“I've had worse. Though I can't say that any other injury has been as enjoyable in the offing,” she replied wryly.

  
He gave one of those low chuckles and slid back into his seat. It was nice to see him laugh. He was far too serious, usually, and she liked it when he smiled.

  
She resolved to find ways to make him smile more. They were good for each other, she thought. It would be interesting to see where things went from here.

  
\-----

  
_Yavin_   
_Gordian Reach_

  
They dropped out of hyperspace at the outer edge of the Yavin system, having caught the Gordian Reach route from the Hydian Way. During their travel from the Core, Cassian had explained that he'd wanted to avoid the Tion Hegemony, since they were in an Imperial ship. It had meant zig-zagging across half the galaxy, but being in an Imperial ship had, of course, been safer in Imperial space.

  
Jyn had no particular fondness for any planet, but when she saw the orange gas giant of Yavin appear, her heart felt a little lighter. Cassian pointed the shuttle at the fourth moon out, a verdant jungle moon that the Rebels currently called home.

  
She glanced over at Cassian and smiled to herself. Nowhere had ever really been “home” before. And even if Yavin wasn't somewhere long-term, she still had Cassian.

  
He clicked the comms open, on one of the Rebel Alliance frequencies. The channel buzzed with chatter. “They'll notice us soon,” he said, just a little wryly, as they got close enough to see the fleet, or what remained of it, in orbit.

  
Almost immediately, broadcast across all channels in the area, came the voice of an unknown comms tech. “Unidentified shuttle, you have entered Alliance space. Transmit identity and clearance immediately.”

  
The threat was clear: Have identification or be shot down. Cassian shook his head. He'd expected it. They were in an Imp shuttle, after all. “Yavin Base, this is Rogue One. Repeat, this is Rogue One. Come in, Yavin.”

  
All sound on the frequency went completely silent. For several long seconds, there was no response. Then,

  
“Unidentified shuttle, please repeat?”

  
“Yavin Base, this is Rogue One, in a stolen Imperial shuttle, current designation of such ‘ _Tydirium_ ’.” Cassian glanced at Jyn. “Captain Andor and Sergeant Erso aboard. Please acknowledge.”

  
The next voice to greet them wasn't an unnamed controller, but Mon Mothma. “Rogue One, you have no idea how happy we are to hear from you. You are cleared for landing at the main hangar.”

  
They grinned at each other. “Copy that, Base. On approach now.”

  
The descent was still tense. Jyn shot repeated glances at Cassian as he guided the shuttle to the broad landing platform.

  
“They'll be armed,” she said.

  
“No doubt.”

  
They stood from their seats and shuffled wearily to the ramp, which Cassian lowered with a slap of his palm against the control.

  
A contingent of Rebel soldiers greeted them, blasters aimed their way. Hands in the air, Jyn and Cassian walked out, eyes scanning the crowd.

  
Everyone she'd known, except for Cassian, was dead. There were no familiar faces here.

  
“Lower your weapons.”

  
General Garm Bel Iblis pushed through the soldiers and extended his hand to Cassian, looking grim. As they shook, the general said, “We thought you were dead, Captain. You two are the only ground forces to come back alive. And we nearly lost the princess, as well.”

  
Cassian frowned. “What was the princess doing there?” he asked.

  
Jyn thought, _Princess?!_

  
“We'll discuss that inside,” Bel Iblis said. “Let's debrief there. You arrived just in time.”

  
“He's hurt,” Jyn interjected. “Several broken ribs. He needs the infirmary.”

  
The general glanced her way, then nodded. “We'll make the debriefing quick. Follow me.”

  
“What about Torean?” Cassian asked. “Is he here?”

  
“He survived Scarif,” Bel Iblis said. “He's in a squadron briefing at the moment.”

  
As they headed into the hangar, Cassian stumbled to a halt and swore. “Solo,” he muttered. “What's that smuggler doing here?”

  
Bel Iblis looked towards the YT-1300 freighter not far from where they stood. “Han Solo had a hand in rescuing Princess Organa. Don't worry, Andor, I'm told he's leaving.”

  
“He'd better,” Cassian said under his breath, “or I'll break _his_  nose this time.”

  
“You'll need to tell me about that,” Jyn said.

  
He nodded to himself and turned his back on the Corellian ship.

  
General Bel Iblis led them to the general war room, where Mon Mothma waited. Cassian was slow-moving, and Jyn walked with her arm around his waist to support him. She didn't care what anyone thought about that.

  
A young woman, maybe a few years younger than Jyn, also stood at the projector. In the middle was a holographic version of the Death Star. Jyn gave a shudder at the sight of it.

  
“We have the plans you and your strike team retrieved from Scarif,” Mon Mothma said without preamble. “I'm not pleased about your unauthorised departure, but given the circumstances, we'll consider that water under the bridge. After you transmitted the plans to the flagship of our fleet at Scarif, they managed to make a copy and get it to Princess Leia. Unfortunately, Admiral Raddus and much of the crew of the ‘ _Profundity_ ’ were lost. Nearly all of Blue Squadron is gone, including General Merrick. General Bel Iblis has taken over Starfighter Command in his place.”

  
The young woman by Mon Mothma’s side spoke up. “I nearly got the plans to General Kenobi myself, but I was captured by Darth Vader at Tattooine. My droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, took an escape pod and made it to the surface. With the help of a local, they tracked down General Kenobi. I was taken back to Alderaan aboard the Death Star.”

  
She paused, brown eyes flashing with anger and pain. “Governor Tarkin used the full power of it on Alderaan.”

  
Jyn's mouth dropped open. “Full power?”

  
It was Mon Mothma who told them, “The attacks on Jedha and Scarif were apparently limited power blasts. Alderaan and its people, including Senator Bail Organa, have been completely obliterated. The planet is nothing but rubble now.”

  
“My father wanted to warn them,” Leia said. If the chief of state’s words hurt her, she gave no sign. “But there wasn't time to evacuate many.”

  
“I'm sorry,” Jyn said.

  
Leia met her gaze briefly, nodded. There was the same grief and anger there, Jyn saw, that she herself carried towards the Empire.

  
“I was rescued,” Leia continued, “by General Kenobi and his protégé, Luke Skywalker, who had hired Captain Han Solo to take them to Alderaan. My message had said my father would be waiting for Kenobi there. But they were too late. Fortunately, they had R2 with them, and the plans. Kenobi died on the Death Star, fighting Vader so we could get away.”

  
“Kenobi,” Cassian murmured. “Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi?”

  
“Yes,” Mon Mothma said. “He was hiding on Tattooine from the Emperor. He was the last of the Jedi.”

  
“He started training Luke,” Leia pointed out.

  
“Be that as it may, Kenobi was the last known Jedi.” Mon Mothma shook her head.

  
Bel Iblis, silent until now, leaned forward and gestured to the holographic Death Star. “We've identified that weakness your father told you about, Sergeant Erso. This exhaust port, two metres wide, leads straight to the reactor core. If we can get some proton torpedoes in there, that pressurised blast he mentioned, that should shut it down and they'll be dead in space. No hyperdrive, no weapon.”

  
“And hopefully,” Cassian said darkly, “one very large reactor explosion.”

  
No one spoke, but it was certain that they all agreed.

  
\-----

  
Leia herself showed them to the infirmary. After explaining to the 2-1B droid that Cassian needed medical care, she gave Jyn a critical look up and down. “I'm told you came to us straight from Imperial prison. You don't have much, do you?”

  
Jyn shook her head, watching as Cassian pulled off his shirt to expose his mottled chest and bandages. She'd used her vest and some electrical tape to bind his ribs. It wasn't pretty, but it had been better than nothing.

  
“You're about my height and size,” Leia was saying. “I don't have much myself, but I have a change of clothes you can borrow for a while.”

  
“Thank you,” Jyn said, meaning it.

  
Leia’s big, dark eyes flicked between her and Cassian. “I'll go find something.”

  
With Leia gone, Cassian finished stripping and let the droid scan him. 2-1B confirmed six broken ribs, no internal bleeding. The burn on his shoulder was mildly infected, though.

  
Jyn waited until Cassian was sedated and in the tank before letting the medical droid treat her superficial and mostly-healed injuries. Her hip had gotten worse, the secondary bruising spreading down her thigh in a mottle of purple, green, and yellow. The main part was deep blue and purple still. The droid gave her pain medication and anti inflammatories and instructed her to rest. The wound on the back of her head had closed and the droid didn't think it a problem. Cassian's assessment of no concussion had been correct. Her shoulder still twinged, but the rest on the shuttle had helped.

  
She'd just swallowed the pills when alarms began blaring and the lighting changed to red. “What's going on?”

  
“Unknown.”

  
“Helpful,” she muttered.

  
She ran into Leia in the rough-hewn stone corridor. “Here,” the younger woman said, thrusting a stack of clothes at her. “I need to get to the command centre.”

  
“Are we under attack?” Jyn asked.

  
“It's the Death Star. It's here, on the other side of Yavin.”

  
“Oh, for the love of-”

  
Leia took off at a dead run. Jyn went back into the infirmary. She was useless in anything other than ground fighting, not that she was in any condition for that, and the last thing she wanted was to look up and see that metal monstrosity over them. Again. For the third time in as many weeks.

  
She changed into the borrowed clothing--Did Leia only own white clothing? So impractical!--and, since Cassian would be in the bacta at least twelve hours, went to the command centre.

  
“Fighters are up,” Mon Mothma said. “Blue Squadron survivors were split between Red and Gold Squadron. General Merrick would be of great help right now.”

  
A dark-haired man that Jyn hadn't seen before stood nearby, and he looked upset at the mention. Was this Torean, Cassian's brother? Cassian had said his brother was an X-Wing pilot, but this man wasn't involved with the assault run.

  
He saw her looking at him, headed around the centre console. He limped as he moved. When he reached her, Jyn saw that the man was missing his right leg from the knee down and was using a makeshift cane to walk, the leg itself temporarily replaced with what looked like a droid leg.

  
His dark eyes assessed her. “You are Jyn Erso. You saved my brother's life.”

  
“I take it you're Torean Andor?” she asked.

  
Torean nodded tightly. “I was at Scarif. One of the TIEs hit my fighter. I ejected. I lost my leg, but I was rescued. I thought Cassian…”

  
“He's in the infirmary,” she said. “Broken ribs, overextended shoulder, a blaster hit. But he'll be alright.”

  
“Thank the Force,” he murmured. “I have lost enough.”

  
He didn't look like Cassian, really. His hair was black rather than dark brown, but she supposed the eyes were the same. His jaw was more square, cheekbones higher. He was clean shaven rather than scruffy like Cassian.

  
“Cassian told me that General Merrick was a particular friend of yours,” she offered. “My condolences.”

  
Torean frowned. “Friend,” he repeated. “Antoc is- was my-”

  
He broke off, swallowed, and suddenly Jyn understood. “I'm so sorry,” she murmured.

  
He nodded, but didn't speak. “Excuse me. I will go see Cassian.”

  
She watched him go. Cassian was unconscious at the moment, but that wouldn't matter to Torean.

  
Jyn braced her hands on the edge of the console. “How long until it reaches us?” she asked General Dodonna. She didn't know where General Bel Iblis had gone. For all she knew, he'd gone up to one of the cruisers in orbit.

  
“Twenty minutes, or so,” he said grimly. “It's on the other side of the planet but coming around.”

  
The console displayed that, but she'd wanted to hear it. Jyn sighed. She shook her head and stepped back from the console.

  
Unwilling to interrupt Torean’s time with Cassian, she left the control room, which was deep inside the building, and made her way up to the surface. No one tried to stop her. No one cared.

  
She could leave, she thought wildly, for one eternal moment. Steal a ship right now and take off. Mon Mothma had promised her freedom.

  
But Jyn realised that she never would. Not without Cassian. At least, not without saying goodbye. Even more than that, though, she didn't want to leave. Not this, not him. Someday, maybe, but not now.

  
Jyn stepped out to the landing field they'd arrived on earlier and looked up at the gas giant Yavin. The gases that made up its mass swirled in eddies of red, orange, and yellow. The sun was setting behind and below the bulk of the planet, which dominated the sky. It made the shadows around her shift strangely.

  
There was no sign of the Death Star from where she stood. No sign of their potential doom come calling.

  
 _Please, Papa_ , she thought. _Please be right about that trap. Let the reactor fail just as you designed._

  
Staring up at the sky was giving her a headache, so she trudged back into the temple. As before, no one paid her the slightest attention. She made her way back to the infirmary, not wanting to know if the assault run failed, if the Death Star blew them to pieces. If death came a third time and succeeded at last, she wanted to be with her only friend.

  
 _Friend_. She remembered her exchange with Torean and smiled bitterly. Cassian wasn't a “friend” and never had been. She barely knew him, but there was so much more between them than “friends”.

  
Torean was still there, talking to his oblivious brother. He glanced her way when she approached. “Is it here?”

  
“Not yet. Maybe ten minutes. I decided I didn't want to watch.” She pressed her hand flat to the curved surface of the transparisteel tank. “He saved me. I thought he'd died, and this man, the man in charge of the Death Star development… I never knew his name, or if I knew it once, I'd forgotten. He had a blaster. I'd lost everything. He was going to shoot me and I hadn't transmitted the plans yet. He was between me and the controls. And Cassian came out of nowhere, shot him, and we helped each other to the shuttle. We almost didn't make it.”

  
“I'm told your father designed it.”

  
She nodded tightly. “Because they made him. They killed my mother and took him away. I hated him for so long. I thought he left me to join them. To join Krennic. That was the man’s name but I didn't know that until Cassian told me.” She hadn't told anyone but Cassian that. She didn't trust people. What was it about the Andor brothers that made her tell them her secrets?

  
He listened in silence. She glanced his way, saw in the better lighting that he might not have looked a lot like his brother, but they had the same colour eyes, at least.

  
“You think this flaw will work?”

  
Jyn shrugged. “I hope it does. I haven't seen the plans, know nothing about them.”

  
Torean smiled wryly but there was no humour in it. She understood, in a way. “Hope.”

  
“Right now, it's all we have.”

  
The strobing light and alarm abruptly shut off. They exchanged confused looks, then without a word both turned and went together up to the outside world. It was slow going, neither one of them able to walk quickly.

  
High above them, between them and the planet Yavin, was an enormous fireball. Everywhere around them, people were screaming and cheering.

  
Jyn stared in awe. “He did it,” she whispered. And in that moment, she felt nothing but love and pride for the father she'd lost.

  
“Antoc would hate to have missed this,” Torean said quietly. “And Cassian will be annoyed when he gets out of the tank.”

  
She thought of Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze, Melshi, all the others who were missing this. Then, “Kaytoo!” Jyn exclaimed.

  
Leaving a confused Torean behind, she ran for the Imperial shuttle, ignoring the psi in her hip. The ramp was still down and she dashed up it, gaze wild as she hunted for the droid’s head. At last, she found it wedged under the pilot seat.

  
Carrying it back to Torean, she said, “We mostly saved his head for his memory banks. We didn't know the Death Star was going to destroy Scarif at the time. Didn't want to leave anything behind. Like the location of this base.” The last was said wryly. “Is there a way, do you know, if we could… save him somehow?”

  
Torean took the droid’s head, studied it. “I do not know. But if there is a way, we will find it. It would mean much to Cassian.”

  
She nodded.

  
“It is not my business,” he said after a moment, “but I wonder… Are you and my brother…? It's only, the way you speak of him…”

  
Jyn felt her cheeks heat. “He's my friend.”

  
He gave her a wistful, knowing look. “Friend, or _friend_?”

  
She averted her gaze. “I care about him,” she admitted. “When he was hurt, and I thought he'd died, I had a moment where I wanted to throw myself after him. And when he came to save me… I'd never seen anyone more beautiful.”

  
Torean nodded, looking down at K2’s head. “I've waited a long time for Cassian to meet a girl he would defy orders for. He is far too serious.”

  
The celebrating rebels surrounded them then, attempting to drag them into their revels. Jyn managed to extricate herself, though Torean let them pull him away. They were, after all, his friends.

  
She sighed, cast a last look up at the burning wreckage that had been the literal bane of her existence, and went back to keep vigil over Cassian.


	3. Chapter 3

Jyn fell asleep while waiting for Cassian to emerge from the tank, curled up on one of the few beds the infirmary held. She dreamed of Scarif and woke with a ragged cry, a sound following her out of her nightmare. She woke half-sitting, and it took a moment to realise that the whining noise from her dream hadn't been a plummeting turbolift, but the machinery lifting Cassian out of the bacta tank. There were people in the other two tanks, now, but she didn't know them.

  
She swung her legs of the cot and stood, going to where Cassian stood, dripping bacta.

  
“You missed the big show,” she told him.

  
His dark eyes focused on her face. “What show?”

  
“The Death Star is gone,” Jyn told him, and it was only then that she could grin about it. “The flaw my father put in worked. Some kid named Skywalker got a shot in and the whole station exploded.”

  
Cassian, not caring that he was covered in bacta and only dressed in a pair of clinging and somewhat see-through briefs, whooped and threw his arms around her. Jyn laughed and hugged him tightly.

  
He was about to kiss her when the infirmary door opened and several high-ranking Alliance officials, likely alerted to Cassian's consciousness by the medical droid, came in. She quelled a pang of disappointment and instead slipped out of the embrace and quickly fetched him a towel.

  
Generals Draven and Dodonna ignored her, eager to fill Cassian in. Jyn looked at her borrowed clothes and realised she, too, was now coated in bacta. She hated the smell of the stuff, and decided that, as Cassian was occupied, to go take a shower.

  
\-----

  
After locating the temporary quarters she'd been assigned, as well as the laundered--but not repaired--clothing she'd worn to and from Scarif, Jyn started the shower in the minuscule refresher. The shower stall was barely large enough for one person. Frankly, she was surprised she had a private shower at all.

  
She stripped out of the clothes she'd borrowed from Leia and stepped under the hot water. Letting it pour over her face, she closed her eyes and ran her fingers through her wet hair. After days of inadequate sponge baths on the shuttle, it felt wonderful to let the spray beat down on her tired body.

  
With her head under the rushing water, she didn't hear the stall door open, didn't know she wasn't alone until the stall was suddenly too crowded, big, rough hands sliding over her naked body to pull her back against a broad, hard chest.

  
Cassian's mouth pressed hot to her ear and he growled, “Let them try to interrupt now.”

  
Jyn had been about to hit him, but she melted at the purr of his voice, the want of him that was a constant, low ache flaring to life. “Cassian.”

  
He was already hard, erection pressing into her back. Jyn lost her breath when his fingers tugged at her nipples and his mouth slid down her neck. Desire was a hot, sharp stab of pure need low in her belly. “Mmm.”

  
“I,” he said, scraping his teeth against her shoulder, “am feeling much better.”

  
“Are you?” she breathed. “And what do you have in mind now that you are?”

  
In answer, he snaked a hand down her body, to the curls at the juncture of her thighs, and rubbed his fingers over her slit before parting her to stroke the pads of them over her clitoris. She was slippery and eager in seconds, moaning as he sucked at the side of her neck.

  
Jyn slapped her hands against the wall of the narrow enclosure, pushing back against him in wordless demand. There was no risk of falling, as tight as it was, though her knees threatened to give as he entered her with one hard thrust.

  
“Unh! Cassian!” She dropped her head forward to rest against the wall, breath coming in ragged pants as his hips pistoned against her arse. “Kriff, don't stop!”

  
He said something in his native tongue, not Basic. She didn't understand the words, but the sentiment behind them needed no translation. Jyn moaned, closing her eyes against the water that bounced off the wall and onto her face.

  
Cassian tipped her head to the side, mouth sliding over her neck. His left hand still gripped her breast, the right teasing her where they were joined, his cock stretching her.

  
“Please,” she whimpered. “Cassian, please.”

  
The orgasm she wanted so badly was just out of reach. She clawed at the wall, keening with need, and he thrust faster, fingers hard on her clit.

  
And then she was falling apart, breath stolen with the force of her climax. Cassian gave a hard buck against her, groaning in her ear, and Jyn shuddered, crying out as the eroticism pushed her into a second orgasm on the heels of the first.

  
She pressed her face to the plasteel wall of the shower, gasping for air, feeling a little dizzy. Cassian kissed her shoulder as he pulled out. Heat slid down the inside of her thigh, and then his hand was there, cleaning up the mess he'd made.

  
When she'd finally regained the ability to breathe, she straightened and turned as best she could in the confines of the stall. He looked like a wild thing, all dark eyes and stubble and that smirk that made her legs weak.

  
“Hi,” she murmured.

  
“Hi,” he replied in kind.

  
He cupped her face in his hands and slanted his mouth over hers. Jyn pressed closer, warm and happy from the surprise sex.

  
Wordlessly, they helped each other wash. He turned off the water and leaned out of the shower to grab the one towel, wrapping it around her.

  
“So,” he said after a while, once they were both dried off. “We did it. The Death Star is gone.”

  
She nodded. “It's not the end of the Empire. Far from it. But now the Alliance knows we can fight, and we have a good chance of winning.”

  
Cassian dropped the towel on the floor. “You fulfilled your part. You're free now.”

  
Her big, green eyes searched his face. “You think I'm going to leave.”

  
He looked up at her. “You have no reason to stay.”

  
Jyn pressed her hands to his bare chest. “I have every reason to stay,” she whispered.

  
He kissed her again, deep and slow, and she drew him to the single cot against the wall. Falling back onto it, she pulled him with her.

  
\-----

  
The Rebellion had an awards ceremony for the “heroes” who'd blown up the Death Star. Neither Jyn nor Cassian attended. It felt false to them, ignoring the sacrifices of their friends and everyone else who'd gone to Scarif with them. Jyn had each of their names, though, committed to memory.

  
It rained debris from the Death Star for two days straight. Jyn had thought they'd evacuate more quickly than this, but strangely, no one seemed worried. Where was the Empire’s swift retribution, their fleet come to wipe out the base? Surely they knew now, what with their precious world destroyer gone?

  
What remains hadn't been propelled into the nearby celestial bodies took up orbit around Yavin and its moons, rings of metal and ash rather than space dust. They weren't visible until you got up close, Jyn heard from one of the pilots. The debris fields weren't dense enough to see from the ground.

  
Walking with Cassian, after the hail of metal stopped and the few fires the mess had caused were put out, Jyn marvelled that it was over.

  
“All that fear and panic,” she murmured. “And we blew it up.”

  
“That _was_  the point in getting the plans.”

  
“It was. But it almost feels anticlimactic. I didn't see it explode, I was with you in the infirmary. And the Empire is still out there. Still looming over everyone.”

  
She kicked a misshapen blob of metal towards the treeline. What part of the monstrosity it had been, she didn't know. Didn't care.

  
“And it worries me that they haven't come here, haven't come after us.”

  
“Mon Mothma says it is because the Emperor has to deal with the Senate. The destruction of Alderaan, of Jedha and Scarif, has made people angry. His eye is not on us right now.”

  
He looked up at the orange-tinted sky and the gas giant taking up most of it. “We will need to leave soon, though.”

  
“Where will we go?”

  
Cassian shrugged. He bent, picked up a shiny piece that could have been anything. The heat of the explosion, the cold of space, had reformed the metal itself into interesting crosshatch patterns. He turned it over in his callused fingers, watching the light reflect off the surface.

  
“Scatter for a while, probably. The council has already sent some of the fleet away. Looking for survivors of Alderaan.”

  
Jyn swallowed, shook her head. “I feel for Leia. We both lost our fathers the last few weeks, but she lost her whole planet.”

  
“Yes. But she is strong. She will pull through it.”

  
He shoved the metal in his vest pocket. “To remember Krennic by,” he said. “To tell him, ‘kriff you, Hutt slime, we beat you’.”

  
She gave him a lopsided smile.

  
“We will find a temporary place,” he continued. “This was only one of many bases we have had over the years.”

  
“Is it? Where were we before?”

  
Cassian smiled at her use of “we”. “Dantooine, for a time. Other places. Some, we were in and out before I could finish an assignment.”

  
He took her hand. “Later. I have something to show you.”

  
“Oh?”

  
Cassian nodded solemnly. “Come with me.”

  
He took her hand and drew her towards the main temple. “This temple was built by an ancient people called the Massassi. They're gone now, wiped out during the Great Sith War four thousand years ago. We don't know much about them or what happened to them. But their temples remain. There is evidence these were built for humans, though. The Massassi were not like us.”

  
He had her rapt attention as he guided her deep into the temple, and down a few stairways into the dark, corridors lit only by a sparsely placed glow lamps on the walls.

  
“I was born on Fest, but we moved from there to Carida when I was six. My father… My parents were not exactly Separatists, but they were close. They opposed the Clone Wars. My father had a position as an instructor at the Carida Academy. I don't remember what he taught, if I even knew. But his passion was history. He loved to show me records from their archives. The Massassi were, according to this particular record, large, red beast-like creatures that walked on two legs.” He sighed. “We had only been on Carida six months when a riot broke out. They were turning the university into a military installation. My father protested and was killed. I don't know much about it. My mother also died there, trying to save him. Torean protected me.”

  
Jyn's memory flashed back to her mother, pulling a blaster on Orson Krennic. The troopers shooting her. “My mother died trying to keep the Empire from taking my father away. She should have stayed with me.”

  
She couldn't see Cassian's face in the dim light, but she felt his gaze on her. His hand squeezed her own.

  
“I only remember the Massassi,” he told her, “because they gave me nightmares for a week. My mother scolded my father for showing me them. I did not follow in his footsteps, but I remember his teachings.”

  
“What happened after they died?” she asked.

  
“A man came and found us. I do not know who he was. He had a scar on his face and wore dark clothes. He had long, wavy blonde hair. He handed us to one of the clones, and we were turned over to a friend of my parents. That's all I remember. Just a few weeks later, the Chancellor declared himself Emperor. We were already in hiding by that point. The Rebellion did not exist yet, but my foster family joined as soon as it did.”

  
The walls and floor changed to natural stone here, and Cassian used his free hand to retrieve a glowrod from a pocket. He turned it on, shining it around.

  
“This way,” he said, turning left at the next juncture. “Watch your steps. It is a little slick.”

  
The cave, for that was what it was, narrowed almost uncomfortably close. Jyn concentrated on breathing evenly as they walked for what seemed like a very long time. She'd been claustrophobic since the time spent in the cave when she was eight, all night in the dark. This reminded her a little too much of it.

  
Then the passage widened into a room a few metres across. Nearly all of it was taken up by a pool of water that reflected darkly.

  
“What is this?” she asked curiously.

  
“A hot spring. I found it a few months ago, when I couldn't sleep and began exploring.”

  
Jyn asked, “Is it safe?”

  
“Yes. Very warm. Almost too hot, but… Look up.”

  
She did, only noticing then that there was a fissure there that showed the sky. She hadn't seen the light from it because of Cassian's glowrod. The sun was setting and the first stars winked into view.

  
“I thought,” he said, “what with having been in prison for so long and only showers here, maybe you would like to soak your hip?”

  
She grinned in the light of the glowrod. Jyn rather liked the showers, if he joined her. “Only if you're planning to join me.”

  
His answering smile was a flash of teeth in the dark. “What kind of idiot do you take me for?”

  
Laughing, Jyn quickly shed her clothes and slipped into the water. Her groan was indecent. “Oh, this is perfect. Come join me.”

  
It took him a little longer to strip and enter the pool. He backed her against the edge of it and kissed her hungrily.

  
When they broke apart, her breath and voice were both shaky with desire. “I have a confession,” she told him, as she reached beneath the water to cup him.

  
“And what is that?” he asked breathlessly.

  
Jyn sank her teeth into his bottom lip, gently, tugged, before licking to soothe it. “Saw abandoned me when I was sixteen. He said on Jedha that it was because people were asking questions about me. Doesn't matter now. I had to fend for myself. With no credits and only a blaster, it meant scavenging. Stealing.”

  
She hesitated, whispered, “Selling what I could. Including myself at times.”

  
He threaded his fingers into her hair, which she'd worn down around her shoulders that day. Cassian didn't speak, just held her.

  
“I got smarter about earning money, but for a while, it was fastest. Easiest. I never…” She drew a shuddering breath. “You're the first man I've been with that I've wanted. The first one that's … I never had an orgasm with someone else until you.”

  
He pressed his forehead to hers, nose to nose. “I'm honoured to be the first you trusted enough. I'm sorry you had to resort to that, though.”

  
Jyn shrugged. “We do what we need to, to survive. I'm sure you've slept with people as a spy.”

  
“Mmm.” It was more acknowledgement than assent. One more thing he clearly didn't like about his past.

  
“I don't hold your past against you, Cassian,” she said softly. “Any of it.”

  
He raised his head. She couldn't see his face clearly in the dark, but knew the expression there anyway. “Including Eadu?”

  
“Including Eadu.”

  
Cassian let out a long, slow breath and relaxed against her. He shifted just a little, caught her mouth with his. Jyn dragged her hands up his back to tangle in his hair.

  
His mouth moved from hers to slide down her throat. The water nearly came to her shoulders, so Cassian boosted her up on the edge of the pool and immediately sucked one of her hardened nipples into his mouth. Jyn's fingers dug into his shoulders and her breath left her in a rush as she sighed his name.

  
“No more secrets,” he said against her breast. “No more lies.”

  
“Agreed,” she breathed. “Nothing between us but trust.”

  
He switched his attention to her other breast. She ran her damp fingers through his hair, wishing she could see his face.

  
Then her breath hitched when he moved, pressing a hot kiss to her stomach. And still he drifted down. Jyn could guess his intention and anticipation sang through her. His mouth on her before, on the shuttle, hadn't lasted nearly as long as she'd have liked. She'd never known pleasure like that, and now he was-

  
Jyn gasped as he spread her, mouth finding her clit unerringly in the dark. “Oh, kriff. Cassian.”

  
She was familiar with pleasure, at least with how to get it herself. But she'd never before experienced true desire, not before Cassian. The bone-deep, breath-stealing _need_  he caused was still foreign and disconcerting, even as she gasped his name and clutched at his hair, begging for more.

  
He pressed his mouth tighter against her vulva, licking and sucking at her clit until her legs shook. This was so much better than on the floor of the shuttle! She could have sworn she saw stars, little sparks of light in the dark.

  
Then he shoved two fingers inside her, moving them in a way that had her spiralling out of control, crying his name as fireworks went off in her head. He pulled her back into the water even as she trembled, his mouth on hers wet with her desire. Jyn didn't care. She kissed him deeply, her hands finding his cock under the water, gripping him with eager fingers.

  
“My turn,” she said against his lips, licking the taste of herself off them.

  
Cassian moved to take her place on the ledge. Jyn lovingly ran her fingers over his length, rolling the hood back to expose the sensitive glans. She dragged her tongue up the underside of his shaft, slow enough to make him hiss out a breath. Then she flicked the tip of her tongue against the slit in the head, enjoying the sound he made.

  
She lazily pumped her hand up and down his cock, swirling her tongue around the glans a few times. She wished she could see his face while she did this, but relying on her other senses was incredibly erotic.

  
Jyn closed her mouth around him. She'd never been able to take more than a few inches without gagging, so she let her fingers work his shaft while she concentrated on the head. Cassian had lapsed into his native tongue, his hand fisted in her hair. She hummed a little and he swore, hips jerking.

  
Laughing, she pulled off with a slurp. “I'll make you come next time,” she told him huskily. “But I need you to fuck me.”

  
Cassian was off the ledge and hoisting her up with hands under her buttocks before she'd finished speaking. Jyn wrapped her legs around his hips and grunted as he pushed into her.

  
He'd told her “welcome home”. But home wasn't the Rebellion. It was his hands on her body, his mouth on hers, his length inside her. It was his arms and his scent and the way he looked at her with those hot, dark eyes. Home was his voice in her ear, telling her she was beautiful and wanted.

  
Words came to her lips, but she buried them in his kiss, terrified to admit them to herself, let alone say them aloud to him.

  
She could give him her body, but she wasn't ready yet to give him her heart. Not until she could trust that he wouldn't break it. She'd said there would be nothing but trust between them, but a tiny part of her hesitated to give herself completely.

  
It would be easy to, and that frightened her.


	4. Chapter 4

They were summoned to meet with Mon Mothma the next morning. Jyn dragged herself out of bed, her hip feeling somehow worse than before. Maybe she did need some time in a bacta tank for it. Jyn hated the idea. She hadn't been able to stand the confines of a tank since she was small.

  
She hadn't spent the night with Cassian, since he'd been off doing something or other. He hadn't explained, she didn't have the clearance or inclination to ask. He was already at the meeting when she got there, his expression inscrutable. Inexplicably, Han Solo and Luke Skywalker were also there. So was General Jan Dodonna. There was no sign of Generals Draven or Bel Iblis.

  
Without preamble, Mon Mothma said, “After the events of Scarif, I have decided that the two of you need to be separated. Captain Andor has displayed an alarming tendency to disobey orders since being assigned to work with you.”

  
He'd apparently already been told this, because he expressed nothing. Jyn looked from him to Mon Mothma.

  
“No,” she said.

  
“Captain Andor is part of this Alliance,” Mon Mothma said. “You are not. You are free to go when we evacuate. Captain Solo has offered to drop you off wherever you wish. You will, of course, be compensated for your time and difficulties.”

  
Jyn glanced at Han, who looked uncomfortable at being put in this position. “No,” she repeated. “I'm not going anywhere.”

  
“Jyn,” Cassian began, but she cut him off.

  
“This isn't up for debate,” Jyn said hotly. “Where Cassian goes, I go.”

  
“Might I remind you-”

  
She interrupted Mon Mothma, on a roll now. “Might I remind _you_  that I was only supposed to get that message from my father? I never officially joined your rebellion, true. I was supposed to get you to Saw and get information on my father. I did that. And then you didn't believe me when I relayed his message to you after he died.”

  
Jyn fought to keep from shouting, but it was difficult and her voice shook. “ _You_  ordered Cassian to kill my father. He didn't obey that order, but one of you killed him anyway. And I nearly died on Scarif, getting those plans, because you lot were too _cowardly_  to do it yourselves. Do you have any idea what it took? I had to climb nearly six stories inside a tower, thinking Cassian was dead, and then crawl through vents to get to the roof. I was nearly blown apart by a TIE fighter while realigning the bloody tower to transmit the plans. I was nearly shot by Orson Krennic, who killed my mother, while transmitting. Cassian climbed out of the tower with a dislocated shoulder and six broken ribs to rescue me and make sure the transmission got through. I didn't get a medal for that. Neither did Cassian. The way I see it, you _owe_  us for what we did.”

  
Han rubbed his jaw in an attempt to hide a smirk. “Kid’s right,” he said. “She did all your heavy lifting for you. I know Luke and I are your glamorous heroes, the big shots that blew that thing to pieces, but without these two, that wouldn't’a happened in the first place.”

  
“We didn't award you medals because it was an unsanctioned assault on an Imperial installation,” Dodonna said.

  
“Oh, hang the medals! I don't give a kriff about that.” Jyn looked to Cassian, who stared in silence down at the holographic projector. “Cassian is my partner. I don't owe you anything, but I owe him everything.”

  
He looked up then, eyes only for her. His expression was serious, cast in blue light. She hoped desperately that she was speaking his thoughts, too, because if he decided that everything he'd said about them had been in the heat of the moment… If he decided that he didn't want her anymore, then she might as well have died at Scarif, because then she'd have nothing.

  
“I'm with Jyn,” he said, and the relief was so overwhelming, she had to grip the edge of the console. “I don't care about accolades or awards. My friends died on Scarif so that Jyn and I could get those plans. We nearly died there. I believe in this cause, Mon Mothma, but if you're going to treat us this way…”

  
He left the threat unfinished, but the rest didn't need to be said. Jyn reached over and took his hand.

  
Luke finally spoke up. The blond fringe over his brow kept slipping into his eyes, and he impatiently brushed at it. “I know I'm the newcomer here, but if they want to work together, let them. We need people to want to be here.”

  
He smiled at Jyn. She couldn't help smiling back. Luke was just very likeable.

  
“Does this mean you're staying?” the auburn-haired senator asked the young man.

  
Luke shrugged. “I don't have anywhere else to go. The Empire killed my family. And maybe doing things for the Rebellion will help me hunt for more Jedi teachings.”

  
Jyn's smile faltered, turned wistful. “I wish you could have met Chirrut and Baze. They were guardians of a Jedi temple on Jedha, but they died on Scarif.”

  
Luke sighed. “I'd like to hear about them sometime.”

  
Mon Mothma looked resigned and annoyed. “Alright. I won't separate you two. You'd likely just run off again, anyway. We'd like you to join us officially. You're the only ones who've seen anything of the Empire’s plans, even if that data is supposedly lost. I wouldn't be surprised if they had backups of much of their work.”

  
Jyn shrugged, glancing at Cassian. “I might as well. Everything that matters to me is here. I have nothing else. And Sefla gave me a… what was it he called it? A brevet something. Said I was a sergeant now.”

  
“Then that's the rank you'll have. I'm assigning you to Intelligence. You'll work with Captain Andor and General Draven.” Mon Mothma looked as if she wanted to say something else, but in the end just shook her head and left.

  
Luke, the too-earnest kid with shaggy blond hair and ridiculously blue eyes, asked, “Does she even know you're, you know, together?”

  
Cassian didn't seem surprised. “The real question is if she cares.”

  
Dodonna made a sound that might have been amusement. “She knows. Everyone does. Don't let it interfere.”

  
He, too, left. Han cleared his throat and said, “Well, if I'm not needed for transportation, I'm gonna go see about my ship.”

  
Luke went with him. Jyn watched them go, then turned to her partner. Cassian shifted closer, dark eyes unreadable.

  
She fidgeted, suddenly unsure what to do with her hands. She turned away, unable to meet his eyes. “I know what I said. But… You'll leave,” she said quietly. “Everyone always does.”

  
Cassian grabbed her arm, pulling it hard enough to spin her around to face him, startling them both. “ _I_  won't leave,” he told her. “You really think I could, after everything we've been through? All that we have shared?”

  
Realising that they had an audience of technicians, Cassian pulled her out into the hallway.

  
“Did I leave on Jedha? On Eadu? Scarif?”

  
Mutely, she shook her head.

  
“I know your father left you. Saw left you. _I_  am not going anywhere, Jyn Erso. I told you, I am with you all the way.”

  
She glanced around, saw an alcove nearby, and dragged him into it. Then she pulled his head down as she lifted on her toes and kissed him. His arms were bands of steel around her, comforting in their strength.

  
When they at last broke apart, he whispered, “I will speak to Draven. I need to go back to what I was doing before, but I will make sure you are with me. Besides, a couple is actually less conspicuous than one man alone.”

  
“And I can watch your back,” she murmured.

  
“I would trust no one else.”

  
\-----

  
Cassian woke to the dark of his quarters. Beside him, wedged between him and the wall, Jyn snored softly. She faced away, curled into herself, and he traced the line of her bare arm with a fingertip, needing to touch her but unwilling to disturb her sleep.

  
He'd been trying to figure out for weeks why he was drawn to her, this feisty scrap of a girl. Sometime between Eadu and now, the fixation had become need. On Scarif, in the turbolift, he'd realised that she was all that mattered now. His brother figured in there somewhere, but Jyn fit perfectly into the hole inside himself that Cassian had carried for as long as he could remember.

  
She understood him better than anyone, a bright light that exposed his flaws and smoothed them over at the same time. When he'd seen her look at him for reassurance, when arguing with Mon Mothma, he'd known that she needed him just as much.

  
He smiled, shifting to fit closer to her, and breathed in her scent. Cassian didn't care that they'd only known each other for a few weeks. He knew they were riding the high of surviving, of taking out the Death Star, and that reality would set in. They had already seen each other at their worst and stuck it out. They could learn the rest as they went.

  
The commlink on the crate beside the bed serving as his nightstand chirped. Jyn made a sound of protest as he rolled to reach for it, but she didn't wake.

  
“Andor,” he answered, aware his voice was husky from sleep.

  
“Sorry to disturb you at this hour,” his brother said. “Can you meet me at the main hangar?”

  
Cassian rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Yes. Give me a few minutes.”

  
He set the commlink on the table and rose from the bed. Jyn stirred, asked groggily, “Where…?”

  
“Torean needs me. Go back to sleep.”

  
She nodded and rolled onto her stomach, taking up the whole bed. He smiled wryly and reached for his pants.

  
He knew without a search where he'd find his brother. They were still waiting on a replacement leg for Torean, and he had no snubfighter. That left one place: the ship Torean and Antoc had shared.

  
Sure enough, the boarding ramp was down on the old ship, a modified freighter from the Kuat Drive Yards. The interior had been altered years ago into something closer to a yacht, as the two men had been able to work in it. Cassian found his brother in the engine compartment, eyeing the hyperdrive.

  
Torean looked like he hadn't slept at all. Cassian felt guilty suddenly, knowing he had Jyn and his brother had lost Antoc.

  
“You look like hell,” he commented.

  
His older brother turned, snorted. There were dark circles under his eyes. He actually looked worse than he had when they'd been reunited after Cassian got out of the bacta tank.

  
“I have had better months,” Torean admitted softly. “But it could be worse. You could have died, too.”

  
Inclining his head in a short nod, Cassian said, “You need to sleep.”

  
“I can't. There is… too much space.”

  
Torean picked up a hydrospanner and set to adjusting a coupling. “I'm sorry I woke you,” he said. “But I am afraid to be with myself for company.”

  
“Don't. I am your brother. You need me, I am here.”

  
The older man sighed and shook his head. “We signed up for this knowing that we could all die. We went to Scarif knowing it. But that does not make the loss any better.”

  
Cassian thought of K2, Chirrut, Baze, Bodhi, Melshi, Sefla. “No,” he agreed. “It does not.”

  
Conversationally, Torean said, “We were going to get married, you know. When we got back. We talked about adopting. The Empire has left so many orphans.”

  
Then Cassian witnessed something he hadn't since they were children. Torean dropped the hydrospanner and began to cry.

  
Without a word, for no words could fix this, he went to his brother and hugged him tightly.

  
The Empire would pay, Cassian thought. Somehow, he would make the Emperor himself pay for his brother's pain.

  
\-----

  
With the loss of his leg, Torean couldn't fly an X-Wing even if they'd had one for him, because he couldn't operate the foot pedals. And he said he didn't want the constant reminder of Antoc’s death. Draven was more than happy to absorb him into Intelligence, once his leg was replaced.

  
They left Yavin in Torean’s ship, but didn't technically go far. The medical frigate in orbit had Torean's prosthetic leg, and so they went there, leaving his ship in one of the hangars.

  
“It will take at least a day for them to install the leg and for him to acclimate to it enough to walk,” Cassian told her. “You should have one of the healers look at your hip. I do not like that you are still limping.”

  
Jyn sighed. “You're right. I should.”

  
She dropped her bag of meagre things on the double bed. “I'll go find one. I'll come you when I know how long it will take.”

  
Cassian nodded and gave her a quick kiss in parting.

  
Jyn left their borrowed quarters, following signs on the walls to where she hoped someone could help her. As she walked, she reflected on how surprisingly content she felt. She hadn't expected to live beyond Scarif, but she had. And with that had come an actual relationship with Cassian.

  
Would her parents have liked him? Would his have liked her? Torean seemed to, so that was enough.

  
The hospital ship was full of surgery bays, rooms full of bacta tanks, exam rooms, and others that Jyn couldn't figure out a purpose to. When she asked, she was directed to a small suite of exam rooms down a deck from where her cabin was.

  
There was a Mon Calamari healer there, and a human woman with a generous head of glossy black curls, creamy skin, and big, dark eyes. She was one of the prettiest women Jyn had ever seen.

  
The healer swivelled an eye her way. She had salmon-and-green skin, less of a bulbous neck that Jyn had seen on males of the species.

  
“I'll be with you in a minute,” the healer said.

  
Jyn gestured to a chair. “No worries. I'll wait.”

  
The other human was apparently getting her birth control updated. Jyn averted her eyes from the injection. It reminded her that she needed hers; they’d given them every five months on Wobani, to keep the females from menstruating or getting pregnant. She'd only had the one, but since she was sexually active now, and hers was about up…

  
Her thoughts flickered to a baby and then shied away. Her, a mother? The thought alone was enough to bring a cold sweat.

  
The other woman spoke, interrupting her thoughts.

  
“So you're the infamous Jyn Erso, huh? My husband can't stop talking about what you did on Scarif. Some of the guys that went with you were his.”

  
She looked up, met those brown eyes. “Ahh…”

  
“I'm Shara Bey,” the woman said. “Green Squadron. My husband is Kes Dameron. He's SpecForces, the Pathfinders.”

  
“Oh.” Jyn wasn't sure what to say. “I… knew some of them, yeah. Sefla gave me the rank of sergeant.”

  
“Kes nearly volunteered for that,” Shara said. “No offence, but I'm glad he didn't. We've only been married three months.”

  
Jyn shook her head.

  
Injection done, Shara rolled her sleeve down. “No one’s angry with you. What you did… I think you're as big a hero as Luke Skywalker. Kes wanted to recruit you into his division, but word came down you're Andor’s partner. Still, it's nice to meet you.”

  
“You, too,” Jyn replied, for lack of a better response.

  
“I know Torean,” Shara continued. “We're escort to the frigate to Mon Cala, so we'll be on board til then. Is that where you're going?”

  
Shrugging, Jyn said, “I go where Cassian goes. He's the boss.”

  
Shara smirked. “Or thinks he is. Listen, you two, and Tor if he's up to it, should join us for dinner in the mess tonight. Kes would love to meet you.”

  
“I don't know if I'll be able to, but I'll try.” She gestured to her injured hip.

  
“Good enough.” Shara nodded and left. Jyn let out a sigh.

  
“She is forceful,” the healer said, voice tinged with amusement. “I am Cilghal. How can I help you, Sergeant Erso?”

  
“I hurt my hip on Scarif,” she began. “Well, I hurt a lot of things, actually, but I hit my hip while climbing a data tower, and then maybe made it worse by nearly falling from a walkway when a TIE fighter tried to blow me up. The bruising is almost gone, but the pain is actually worsening.”

  
Cilghal directed her to one of the exam rooms and onto the table. After running a scanner over her, the healer said, “You have a hairline fracture to your pubic bone at the point where it joins the ilium.”

  
Jyn blinked. “How did the 2-1B miss that?”

  
“The one at Yavin is old. This scanner is new. You need rest, at the very least. I would prefer you spend some time in bacta, as well.”

  
“I'm claustrophobic,” Jyn said on a rush.

  
The healer focused both eyes on her, then one shifted to the bacta tank in the corner. “Do you want to be able to walk?”

  
Jyn sighed. “How long will it take?”

  
“Just a few hours. That will not heal it completely, but will help a great deal.”

  
“Fine. Also, uh… I need a booster on my birth control.”

  
\-----

  
Cassian was there to greet her when she emerged from the tank. He thought she looked rather like a drowned rat, but didn't dare tell her that.

  
He waited while she showered the medicinal fluid off, presenting her with new clothes when she emerged in the issued white robe. “There is a… lost and found,” he explained. “Misplaced things, donated things. I pulled out what I thought you would like or what might fit. The boots are probably a bit large for you, but we can fix that.”

  
She nodded, started digging through the pile. The healer had excused herself and left them in the small room by themselves. Cassian leaned against the wall as Jyn dropped the robe on the floor and began dressing.

  
The casual intimacy of it was… pleasing, he decided. “How is your hip now?” he asked her.

  
“Better. Much better. Not completely healed, but I didn't want to be in bacta that long.”

  
Cassian nodded. He'd been lucky that his ribs had been cracked, not shattered. Worse breaks frequently required days at a time in bacta. There was no point in mentioning that if she'd had a few hours in the bacta on Yavin, she wouldn't have been in pain that long. They both knew it, and even after this short amount of time together, Cassian knew she wouldn't appreciate the reminder. The past was the past. No point in dwelling like that.

  
“Kes Dameron contacted me,” he told her. “He said his wife, Shara, invited us to dinner. I would like to catch up, but if you don't want to go, I will not make you.”

  
Jyn finished pulling on a tank top over her bare breasts and then shrugged into a long, olive green hooded top with long sleeves and thumb holes in the cuffs. “Might as well,” she said on a sigh. “Can't be antisocial forever.”

  
Then she pulled on a new vest, one without shrapnel tears or burns in it, and transferred her few belongings into it.

  
He'd noted that she possessed very little. While neither of them were inclined towards owning a lot of things that tied them down, Jyn literally owned only what she wore, two truncheons, and a blaster.

  
And his heart, but he wouldn't admit that yet.

  
“I did some digging,” he said, as she finished showing her commlink and tucked her necklace down her shirt. “Before we extracted you. I had to look up who Galen Erso was, discover you, track you down. It was not easy figuring out you were Liana Hallik.”

  
“On _purpose_ ,” she said with a cocky grin.

  
“I still did it,” he shot back. He smiled briefly, then let it drop. Cassian reached into a pocket. “While researching your father, I found a few things. I couldn't before, but…”

  
He held out his hand, and she extended hers, curiosity written over her pretty features. He dropped a holocube into her palm, and a data stick.

  
Jyn's brow furrowed as she turned the holocube on. Then her expression cleared with wonder as a holo of her parents popped up. It was an animated one, them young and smiling as they held each other, dressed in finery.

  
He watched as she cycled through them, her green eyes intently focused on the images. She took her time with each, and he waited patiently.

  
When Jyn reached the first one again, he said, softly, “That was their wedding day, apparently. I thought you would like to see it first.”

  
She looked up at him, eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “Thank you,” she whispered, and threw her arms around him.

  
Cassian smiled, stroking her damp hair with one hand, the other holding her close. “You are very welcome.”

  
\-----

  
By evening, Torean had the first part of the prosthetic in. They'd install the rest in the morning and graft the synth skin on after, so he was using crutches and had a metal ring implanted at the end of his amputated leg, just above where his knee had been.

  
He joined them for dinner, and shared laughter with Kes and Shara seemed to brighten his mood. Cassian wasn't exactly gregarious, but he joined in some. Jyn mostly picked at her food and listened to their stories. Her mind kept going back to the holocube and data stick, wanting to know what was on the latter.

  
She looked up from the reconstituted, freeze-dried iagoin steak she'd been idly jabbing with her fork to find Cassian watching her. “What?” she asked self-consciously.

  
He gave her that half-smile and shook his head. “Nothing.”

  
The others watched them with interest, Shara nudging Kes with a grin on her face. Jyn blushed and attacked her steak with her utensils. Everyone knew and it was embarrassing. She hadn't had people to care, to rib her and tease because they genuinely liked her.

  
It made her miss Chirrut and Baze something awful. The blind man had been nothing but kind to her, the big man calling her “little sister”. It wasn't fair that she had lived and they had not.

  
Cassian reached over, curled his hand around the back of her neck. He leaned close, whispering, “Hey. You okay?”

  
She thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Not really. Not yet.” It surprised her that she was able to admit that, surrounded by people she barely knew.

  
He rubbed his thumb in small circles at the base of her skull, easing some of her tension. Cassian didn't speak, but his face showed he knew what she was thinking.

  
“So,” Shara said, maybe a little too loudly. “When we get to Mon Cala, where are you three going?”

  
Torean looked to Cassian. “Ask him, he's the brains. I just fly the ship.”

  
Cassian snorted, shrugged. He extended his arm to wrap it around Jyn’s shoulders. She wasn't used to this casual touch thing, but had found it came easy with him. “I will make contact with my informants, see what is being said in certain channels, go from there.”

  
Jyn noticed, as she leaned into him, that they mirrored Kes and Shara. The thought flustered her a little, imagining herself in the married couple’s place. She glanced at Torean, saw him studying her, then flushed when he winked.

  
She finished her lackluster dinner and then excused herself, no longer able to resist looking at the data stick. Cassian let her go, somehow knowing she needed the privacy.

  
Back in their temporary quarters, she retrieved the new-ish datapad she'd been given and plugged it in.

  
\-----

  
When Cassian returned to their quarters, he found Jyn sprawled across the double bed, face down, holding the datapad, sound asleep. He hadn't meant to take so long, talking with his friends, but Janson from Gold Squadron and Antilles from Red Squadron had found them. Even though he was army and they were navy, they were still people he knew and liked.

  
Time had gotten away from him.

  
Gently, he pulled the datapad out of her grasp, before it could fall on the floor. He set it on the tiny table and then turned to removing her boots. Jyn protested sleepily when he crawled in beside her and tugged the covers over them, the words unintelligible and likely something to do with whatever she was dreaming.

  
She curled into him, fingers fisting in his shirt, and drifted back into sleep. Cassian hit the control for the lights on the bedside table, slinging his arm over her as he rolled onto his side.

  
Sleep didn't come easily, though he was exhausted. The contents of the data stick had been about her parents, what he could gather before Lyra’s death and Galen’s subsequent disappearance from the galaxy at large. He wasn't sure any of it would be worth anything to Jyn, but he'd had to give it to her. And the why was what kept him awake.

  
Just hours before, he'd resisted admitting that he had fallen in love. Seeing her at dinner, though, it was like a switch had been flipped. It wasn't any one thing, one “aha!” moment. Just the simple knowledge that he did.

  
Maybe it was too soon. Maybe not. He felt he'd known Jyn for more than the month he had. Something in her called to something in him. And he was perfectly fine with that.

  
Her feelings were a little more in question, but he thought chances were good she felt the same, or was on her way to it. The way she'd fought to stay together, the way she'd looked at him when she'd thought he wasn't looking. Even now, the way she pressed close, trusting him as she'd probably never trusted anyone.

  
He would, he decided, tell her tomorrow.


	5. Chapter 5

_The turbolift got them back to the ground floor. There was no one to stop them from getting on the car that would take them out to the landing pads._

  
_Pad 9 was a flaming ball of smoke and wreckage. Bodhi was gone._

  
_They limped together towards the sand, staring at the wall of light coming towards them. Jyn fell to her knees, Cassian beside her. They clung to each other._

  
_It wasn't supposed to end like this. She didn't want to die._

  
She woke with a cry, pushing half upright. Startled awake, Cassian reached out and pulled her to him. Jyn was vaguely aware that she was shaking.

  
“We died,” she told him in a hoarse whisper. “We didn't get away. There was nothing to steal. Everyone was dead. The Death Star-”

  
“Shh. It did not happen.” Cassian hugged her close, face in her hair. “You are safe, with me.”

  
She rolled over, digging her fingers into his shirt. “That doesn't stop the nightmares.”

  
“No.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I have them, too. Where we almost get the others, but I make a mistake and it is my fault that they die. That I lose you. That I am too late and Krennic shoots you.”

  
He rubbed small circles on her back as he said, “I dream that I find you hanging from the wreck of the walkway, and I try to pull you up but don't have the strength and you fall.”

  
She very nearly had fallen, but she didn't say that. He knew already, had to know.

  
“Does the guilt of surviving ever go away?” she asked softly.

  
“Some. Not all.”

  
She nodded, grateful for the honesty.

  
His hand slid down to her hip, then back up to her breast. “Would you like me to distract you?” he whispered.

  
Jyn bit her lip, smiled against his neck. “I think this is the first proper bed we've been in, Captain.”

  
“I had noticed.”

  
He leaned in to kiss her, mouth soft on hers for a little while. But Jyn found herself impatient and pressed closer, deepening the kiss. With a groan, Cassian rolled her to her back.

  
She liked the weight of him against her, his hard, lean body pinning her to the mattress. It felt right. He felt right, and safe, the way no one else ever had.

  
Later, they lay in a sweaty tangle, his head on her breast. Jyn ran her fingers through his hair, feeling … She wasn't sure what it was, but she thought she might actually be content.

  
“What does it say about me that this is the first time I've ever really felt happy?” she asked him quietly.

  
Cassian rose on an elbow to look at her with heavy-lidded eyes. “I feel the same. Life has been hard for us.”

  
“That has got to be the understatement of the century,” she told him, but for once she didn't feel bitter. “But I feel like… It's finally worth everything.”

  
“I know what you mean.”

  
She pushed at him half-heartedly. “And now I need to pee. Off.”

  
Cassian laughed, low and rumbly. She loved the sound of it. But if she told him that, he'd just get self-conscious about it.

  
When she returned from the refresher, she found him standing by the bed, still nude, flicking through the holos of her parents. She took a moment to admire the lines of his body. Cassian appealed to her physically more than any man had. Though she was primarily into him for his mind, the muscles really didn't hurt.

  
He glanced up, stopped at a holo of her mother and her on Coruscant at some function she had absolutely no recollection of. She must have only been two at most.

  
“I was always more my father’s daughter,” she told him. “Mama was a geologist, Papa was a scientist and inventor. I was more inclined to take things apart, to be honest, but… He made all my toys for me. Ironically, my favourite was a stormtrooper I called Stormy. I'm afraid I wasn't very creative in the naming department.”

  
One corner of his mouth turned up. He turned the holocube off and set it down.

  
“I had orders to kill him,” he said. “I knew, logically, that it made sense. He could have been lying. But I did not want to. It would hurt you, and you would hate me. I am used to sacrificing for this Rebellion. I was ready to sacrifice what was growing between us for the cause.”

  
She shook her head. “Cassian, I already forgave you-”

  
“No. I need to say this.” His dark eyes searched her face. “I've killed so many. I haven't hesitated before taking their lives. But when I saw him, saw your eyes in his face, I could not do it. Because he was your father. Because he was part of you.”

  
She'd already figured that out, from things he'd implied the past few weeks, but it was both comforting and unsettling to hear the words. She stepped closer, trailed her fingers down the plane of his abdomen. “Cassian…”

  
He reached to brush the fringe of hair out of her eyes, ran his fingertips down to her jaw. “I love you.”

  
Everything seemed to stop for an eternal moment, including her heart. She hadn't known until that moment that she'd wanted to hear him say it. Still, she didn't know how to react. Her mouth opened but nothing came out.

  
 _Trust the Force_ , a whisper said somewhere in her head. They were her mother's last words to her, but somehow, the voice was Chirrut’s. _All is as the Force wills it._

  
“I love you,” he repeated, seeing her shock. “I think I fell in love with you the day we met and you stole my blaster. Maybe I am a fool for feeling this so soon, but after Scarif, I can't see myself with anyone but you.”

  
Jyn would have laughed at the reference to her kleptomania, but her heart was in her throat. She couldn't speak past the lump, could only stare at him. No one had said those words to her since her parents. No one had truly cared for her since them. Saw had, in his way, but it wasn't the same.

  
Cassian’s brows drew together in a concerned frown. “Jyn? Please say something. Tell me I haven't frightened you away.”

  
She shook her head and closed the space between them, standing on her toes and throwing her arms around his neck to drag his head down, mashing her mouth against his. She felt the tension bleed out of him as they kissed, and his arms went around her like bands of steel.

  
It was she who pulled away first, dropping back to her heels. “I love you, too,” she whispered. “I've been scared to say it. I didn't know if you felt the same, and I didn't know if you wanted to hear it.”

  
“I want to hear it every day,” he whispered. “On Scarif, in the turbolift, I realised that I wanted to live for you, to be with you. I thought it was too soon and too late. You had hated me, and I nearly killed your father. You had no reason to want me.”

  
Jyn cupped his face in her hands, rubbing her thumbs over his stubbled cheeks. She shook her head. “I wanted to kiss you then. I'm glad we didn't, because I likely wouldn't have remembered the shuttle. But I wanted to, so much.”

  
He kissed her forehead, then her mouth. “I would have been alright dying beside you. But this is better. I haven't been a good man, Jyn. I don't deserve this.”

  
“Hush. I'll be the judge of that.” She pushed the lock of hair that always fell over his forehead out of his eyes. “I've done my share of things. And this fight isn't over. We'll likely do more. But as long as we have each other, we should be alright.”

  
“I want to take you away for a while. It will take time for the Rebellion to find a new base. Perhaps we could scout for a new one. I'd say just the two of us, but I am worried about Torean.”

  
She grinned. “I like that idea.”

  
“I'll run it by the general, he can present it to the council.” His hands, warm and rough on her bare skin, slid down her back. “Let's go back to bed.”

  
\-----

  
In the morning, Jyn went with Torean to keep him company while they installed his new leg. Cassian had a meeting with General Draven, so she was there in his stead.

  
It was a long process of hooking up wires and motors and testing them. Part of her found it interesting but the long times between while they programmed it were a little boring.

  
Torean was a more talkative person than Cassian, and he had a multitude of embarrassing stories about his little brother to regale her with. He steadfastly refused to discuss the Rebellion, which made sense to her. He was avoiding the subject of his lover, and Jyn definitely didn't want to pry.

  
“Cassian told me your parents were almost Separatists,” she said.

  
He nodded, eyes on the medical droid’s actions. “They did not like what the Republic was doing. It turned out later that it was not the Republic, but Palpatine, that was the problem. They died before the Empire was created. I wish they could have seen the truth.”

  
She smiled wryly. “My parents did and it still wasn't any help.”

  
“That is not true. Your father-”

  
“My father was naïve,” she interrupted. “The Death Star was half built before he realised what it was. I overheard my parents arguing about it one night. Didn't remember til a few weeks ago. Papa… He'd get lost in his work, in challenges. I don't know what he thought it would be when he started, but my mother had to point out what it really was. That was when we ran away. The Empire still found us, dragged him back.”

  
“And your mother?”

  
Jyn shrugged. “Papa wanted her to hide with me. She left me and went to try to stop them. Krennic and four Death Troopers against one geologist with a blaster. She died. I hid.”

  
She didn't want to be bitter about it anymore. She could forgive her father for what he'd done, but her mother's choice had always, in the back of her mind, hurt more.

  
She wouldn't abandon any child of hers to try to rescue Cassian. He could get out of things himself, and oh, Force, when had the possibility of children entered her mind? She was terrified at the thought of motherhood, of being responsible for a child.

  
“Jyn?” Torean regarded her oddly. “Are you alright?”

  
“Fine.” She reached up and clasped the crystal around her neck. It seemed hot, and again, she heard Chirrut in the back of her head. _Trust the Force. All is as the Force wills it._  That may have been true, but she wasn't about to surrender her life to the whims of an invisible, all-knowing energy. “Just remembering.”

  
“Memory is hard,” he said after a moment. “You don't want it but you don't want to forget.”

  
She nodded.

  
“You make my brother happy,” he said suddenly. “There is a life in him again that I thought he'd lost.”

  
She ducked her head. “I love him,” she said.

  
“Good. If you did not, I would be very angry with you.”

  
He said it with a smile, but she knew it was true. “I don't know how to be with someone. We've just been… winging it and avoiding talk of the future. I don't know if we'll _have_  a future. I don't know where this war is going or what I'm going to do in the Rebellion. All I know is, when I try to think of the future, all I see is him.”

  
Torean's smile turned bittersweet. “I know the feeling.”

  
“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-”

  
“Stop. Please. Do not regret loving my brother because you think it will hurt me. Antoc and I knew that we could be separated any time, that every day could be our last together. I miss him. It feels like more of me is missing than my leg.” He gestured to the mostly-installed prosthesis. “I'm grieving. But I will live. He would want me to, so I will. I hate the idea of you thinking I am jealous and hiding your relationship with Cassian to spare me. Seeing him happy gives me strength.”

  
She gave him a wry smile. “You're a rare man, Torean Andor.”

  
He grinned, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. “I know.”

  
\-----

  
Cassian found Jyn and Torean wandering the corridors, his brother taking it slow as he adjusted to the artificial leg, Jyn there to help him if he fell. It gave him a disconcertingly fuzzy feeling to see the two most important people in the galaxy to him laughing over something he hadn't been in time to catch.

  
“How is the leg?” he asked, as he approached.

  
“I have not fallen yet,” Torean said.

  
Jyn met his gaze and smiled. Stang, she was beautiful. Cassian returned the smile before turning his attention to his brother.

  
“How does it feel?”

  
The elder Andor frowned, shrugged. “It is… different. Not bad, but strange. The healers say it will take time to adjust. I still feel the missing part, but not. This new leg is-”

  
Torean gave up trying to explain. “I can't put it into words.”

  
“But it is working? You have full sensation in it?” Cassian asked.

  
“As full as I can.”

  
“Good. How soon will they discharge you?”

  
Torean shrugged. “I can go when I want. Do we have orders?”

  
Cassian nodded. “The fleet is scattered for now, but the council wants us, you, me, and Jyn, to find a new base. Soon.”

  
Jyn looked from Torean to him. “Please tell me we get a vacation first.”

  
“Of course.”

  
“I'd like a beach,” Torean put in.

  
“No beaches,” Cassian and Jyn said in unison, then exchanged looks. “No beach. It will be a long time before I can see sand again.”

  
His brother seemed about to say something, then apparently decided better of it. “Alright. Where to, then?”

  
“No idea, yet. But we'll find something.”

  
\-----

  
_Tharin Sector_   
_The Outer Rim_

  
The Empire’s presence was stronger in the Core, its grip lessening the more distant one got from Coruscant. The Rebellion had largely formed in the fringes of the Outer Rim, Chandrila and Mon Cala to name a few. It was easiest to scout places there, where civilisation was sparser and the eye of Palpatine not so keen.

  
“Ossus?” Torean suggested. “There are structures there, old ones. Probably as old as the Massassi temples.”

  
Cassian shook his head. The three of them sat in the lounge aboard the _Stormrunner_ , Jyn leaning against him, Torean unable to stay still for very long. Having his leg back made him restless, and he alternated sitting with pacing.

  
“The atmosphere of Ossus is not friendly. It is breathable, but twice a year it becomes foggy and ionised. That would foil Imperial scanners, but would also interfere with our sensors.”

  
Torean leaned back in his chair to peer down the short corridor to the cockpit. They were in hyperspace, having just left Mon Cala for a short stop at Dennogra to roust an informant of Cassian's he hadn't heard from in too long. The computer wasn't signaling anything and the blue swirl of hyperspace glowed through the viewport.

  
He set his chair legs down with a thunk and stood, back to pacing. “Jabiim?”

  
“In Imperial hands,” Cassian said.

  
“Ruusan?”

  
“Imperial.”

  
“Rishi?”

  
Cassian just gave him a look. Torean winced.

  
“Right. Beaches. Was it really that bad?”

  
It was Jyn who said, “The beaches at Scarif were lovely, if not for all the dead Rebels everywhere.”

  
“... No beaches. Gamorr?” He held up his hands preemptively. “Kidding!”

  
Cassian thumped his head back against the headrest behind the bench seat. “We have won a hard victory against the Empire, but I still feel we are mynocks fleeing a crashing ship. Everywhere we look, there is the Empire, crushing the galaxy under its boots.”

  
Jyn took his hand, nudged him with her shoulder. “Not forever. It might take a while, but look at it this way: We snuck into one of the most heavily guarded Imperial facilities and successfully stole the plans for the Death Star. We also goaded the Empire into blowing up their own data vault. Just imagine what they lost. Then we blew up their Death Star and killed Grand Moff Tarkin with it. And we have a Jedi in training with us now.”

  
Torean scoffed. “He's a boy,” he said. “Ten years younger than me and wet behind the ears. He is so green, he's almost a Nemoidian.”

  
Jyn arched a brow. “What is a Nemoidian?”

  
Cassian waved a hand. “They ran the Trade Federation that started the Separatist movement that started the Clone Wars. Ugly green things with big, red eyes.”

  
“Oh.” She reached out and picked up her glass of fizzwater. “I was born in a Separatist prison, on Vallt.”

  
“Really?” Torean asked. “How did that happen?”

  
“My parents were there for some project. Someone decided Papa was a spy for the Republic. My mother told me once that his friend had gotten us out. I only remembered later that the so-called friend was Orson Krennic. Cassian found me what information he could on my parents. Papa and Krennic were friends for a long time. Until Papa realised what the Death Star was. Then he ran, and took us with him.” She smiled faintly. “I’ve lived so many places. The most I've ever had in one place was-”

  
She stopped, seemed to draw in on herself, and she looked down at the table.

  
Cassian gave her shoulder a light squeeze and rub, turning back to his brother. “After we see if my contact is still alive, let's cut Coreward of Huttspace, skim past Bothawui, see if anything out that way strikes us?”

  
“A plan! It is not much of a plan, but it is one. Good.”

  
The computer in the cockpit let out a low-toned alarm, indicating the upcoming revision to hyperspace. Torean headed that direction to take control.

  
“Are you alright?” Cassian asked Jyn, murmured so his brother wouldn't overhear.

  
She shrugged, gave him a game attempt at a smile. “Mama’s been gone about fourteen, fifteen years. It still hurts and I'm still angry. With Papa dying so recently, it's all here again.”

  
He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer. Kissing her hair, he said quietly, “It happens. It has been twenty years for us, and I still miss them every day.”

  
She turned her head to rest her cheek on his shoulder. “I know she didn't mean to abandon me, it's only… After they killed her, I ran and hid. I was supposed to be hiding anyway, but I disobeyed. There was this cave, not terribly far from the house. Not for an adult, anyway. I ran and ran until I thought my heart would burst. There was a bunker in the cave, hidden by rocks. Down a long shaft, just a room full of supplies, smaller than this lounge. There was just enough room for me, for my mother if she'd come with.”

  
She turned the glass in her hands, watching the carbonation bubbles rise through the translucent green liquid. Cassian, in turn, watched her, shifted just enough that though he couldn't see her face, he could watch those hands fidget.

  
“I don't know how long I was in there until Saw came. At least overnight. It was dark, but I couldn't risk a light. And it was cold and wet. I was sick for a week after he found me, delirious and screaming for my mother. But she never came. And my father never came. I didn't see him again until that recording. Until Eadu. I never got to say-”

  
He looped his other arm around her. “He knew, Jyn.”

  
“Did he? I hated him for so long, and I didn't get to say goodbye.”

  
She broke down then, finally, the tears she had somehow held off this long. Torean paused in the doorway, stopping short at the sight of Jyn sobbing in his brother’s arms. Without needing to be told, he simply backed up and returned to the cockpit.

  
Cassian would never tell her that it had been Blue Squadron on Eadu, that there was every possibility that either Torean or Antoc had fired the torpedo that had killed Galen Erso. There was no point. The guilt of it already weighed heavily on both of the Andor brothers. They could carry it for her.


	6. Chapter 6

They weren't on Dennogra long. Cassian's informant had vacated a month before and had left no forwarding address. Chances were good the Toydarian was actually dead.

  
They returned to the ship to find a message waiting for them from Draven, asking them to stop by the planet Dressel, which was near Bothan space and a strong supporter of the Alliance.

  
“Well,” Torean said slowly, “that's an interesting coincidence. Weren't we going that way anyway?”

  
“Not a coincidence. I told him we were headed that direction.” Cassian rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “Dressel is a very pleasant place. We could spend some time there and relax.”

  
“Have you been there?” Jyn asked. “What's it like?”

  
“Temperate. A lot of hills, forests, grasslands. Lakes. The gravity is lower than standard, but not awkwardly so.” Cassian nodded to his brother. “Put it into the navicomputer. We'll go have a look. They won't want a base there, we know this already, but I suspect that the council wants us there to inform the Dressellians about the Death Star. They're insular, though they support us, and prefer to hear things from people who know rather than holos.”

  
“And who better to tell them?” Jyn murmured.

  
He nodded. “Luke Skywalker?”

  
She laughed. “Right. I'm surprised he can put his shoes on the correct feet. He's just so…”

  
“Young. I don't think either of us were ever that young. Even as children.”

  
“No,” she sighed. “I don't think we were. And while we're on the subject, I don't think I know how to take a vacation.”

  
Cassian grinned. “I don't, either. Let's figure it out.”

  
\-----

  
_Dressel_   
_Noolian Sector_   
_The Mid-Rim_

  
Jyn's first impression of Dressel was that it was incredibly green. Yavin was green, but it reeked of vegetation rotting in the heat. Dressel was warm, but not hot, and a cool breeze wafted by them as they stepped off the Stormrunner.

  
She noticed the difference in gravity immediately. “I feel lighter.”

  
“Not that you weigh much,” Torean teased. “You're tiny.”

  
Feeling oddly playful, she stuck her tongue out at him and bounced in place.

  
They were met by some officials. The Dressellians were about Jyn's height, with brownish skin in a variety of shades, large cranial bumps, and yellow eyes. Jyn vaguely recalled having a doll of one when she was about eight, but couldn't remember what had happened to it. It must not have been one of the hastily packed toys she'd taken with her when fleeing.

  
The meeting wasn't very long. Cassian spoke, explaining the Death Star and the events on Jedha and Scarif, told them of Alderaan. The head of the Dressellian Council told them to tell Leia that the refugees of Alderaan were welcome to come to Dressel if they needed a place to stay before establishing a new world.

  
Jyn was constantly amazed at the things the Alliance did. They fought for each other and supported each other in ways that so many she'd grown up knowing didn't. True, she'd been disappointed by the cowardice of some of the council, but in the end, they'd come to Scarif anyway. The brave men and women who'd accompanied them on the mission were never far from her thoughts. They hadn't been there for revenge like Saw’s cadre, and these people weren't offering shelter for gain. They did these things because they were the right thing to do.

  
After the meeting, they were shown to a lovely lodging that overlooked a nearby lake. It was a low, one-story building with two guest rooms and doors that opened to a beautiful garden of wildflowers.

  
“I think I could stay here forever,” she sighed, as Cassian joined her to stand outside, admiring the view.

  
“I'd give it a week before you punched someone out of sheer boredom,” he said.

  
Jyn laughed, surprised that she was just amused and not offended. “You're probably right.”

  
“Or you would find a way to blow something up.” He caught her waist in his hands as she turned, tugging her compact body against him. “Neither of us are people for inaction. But I could suffer through this for a while.”

  
She slid her hands up his chest. “Oh, it's like that, is it? Suffering? I don't know if I should take offence or offer to ease your pain.”

  
He lowered his head, mouth hovering just above hers. “Definitely the second one,” he whispered.

  
Jyn pushed up on her toes just enough to close that last space between them, wrapping her arms around his neck.

  
Torean cleared his throat loudly. “Do I need to tell you to get a room?”

  
Cassian sent him a rude gesture, which made his brother laugh.

  
“He's right,” Jyn whispered against his lips. “We should get a room.”

  
“That's a good idea.”

  
He grabbed her hand and pulled her, laughing, into their bedroom.

  
\-----

  
Their second day on the planet, Cassian found himself requested at a holoconference with Mon Mothma, General Dodonna, and Leia, who was now the leader of a displaced people. Jyn reassured him she'd be fine by herself, Torean going with him.

  
“I managed before I met you, I think I can handle a day to myself.”

  
“That,” he told her wryly, “is what I'm afraid of.”

  
She flashed him the same gesture he'd given Torean, and he actually cackled, shutting the door in her face as he left.

  
Jyn found herself grinning.

  
Deciding to make use of rare downtime and beautiful weather, she grabbed a few foodstuffs from their kitchen and carried it out to the lake shore. It wasn't a long walk at all, and thought the sun was bright, it wasn't too warm. She'd enjoyed Yavin after the cold of Wobani, but this was better.

  
She took her blaster, though, because the nice environment might make her stupid.

  
Jyn found a decent place to sit, in the shade of a gaily-flowered tree near the water, and dropped to sit in the grass. Insects buzzed around nearby flowers, clouds drifted by overhead, and somewhere nearby, what she thought was a bird chirped.

  
It was disgustingly serene.

  
She ate a piece of fruit, keeping the sandwich she'd thrown together wrapped in flimsi, and closed her eyes. It was easy here, to breathe deep and let go a little of the tension she always carried. Jyn couldn't remember the last time she'd actually been able to just sit and *be*.

  
Lah’mu, she decided. It had to have been on Lah’mu.

  
Gradually, as she sat there, not thinking of anything, the sounds around her fell away one by one. There were still there, they just weren't important, not anything she noticed. Her breathing was deep, and she felt a sort of peace come over her.

  
“Jyn.”

  
She opened her eyes, and Lyra Erso sat before her, smiling softly, dressed in the robes Jyn remembered, the red sash at her waist. Chirrut had also worn that, she remembered. Lyra was faintly blue, which didn't strike Jyn as odd for some reason.

  
“Mama,” she said. “Am I dreaming?”

  
“Yes,” Lyra said, “and no. You're subconsciously meditating.”

  
“Oh. So I'm talking to myself.”

  
Her mother's smile widened just a little. “Yes, and no.”

  
Jyn frowned. “What do you mean, no?”

  
Lyra gestured to the kyber crystal around Jyn's neck. “Do you remember what I told you?”

  
“Trust the Force,” Jyn whispered.

  
A nod.

  
“I'm sorry, Mama. I'm sorry I've been so angry.”

  
“It's okay, baby. I love you, we love you, and that's all that matters.”

  
Jyn nodded, tears slipping down her cheeks.

  
“I don't have much time. I need to tell you some things. First, your father is alright. He's at peace and he says he knows and it's okay and you need to be at peace, too. Secondly, trust Cassian. You'll do good together.”

  
Lyra started to fade. Jyn grasped for her frantically. “Mama!”

  
“You need to know, Stardust. Your father wasn't all we were hiding from the Empire. Trust the Force.”

  
Then her mother was gone. Jyn startled out of her trance with a cry and fell over on the cool grass, reaching for the mother who wasn't there.

  
“Jyn? Jyn!”

  
Suddenly, Cassian was kneeling beside her, helping her upright. “Jyn, love, what happened? I heard you call out. Are you hurt?”

  
She shook her head. He held her face in his hands, thumbs wiping at the tears. “I saw her, Cassian. I saw my mother.”

  
His brow furrowed. “You dreamed of her,” he said.

  
“No, I…” Had it been a dream? It must have been. She let out a shuddering sigh. “It seemed so real. We were sitting here, talking. She said she and Papa love me, and I should… be at peace. They're alright where they are.”

  
He sat down, pulling her close. Jyn realised she'd squished her sandwich when she fell over. “Oh, well, there goes my breakfast.”

  
“Breakfast?” Cassian repeated. “Jyn, it's afternoon. You've been gone for hours.”

  
She blinked, pushed against his chest so she could look at him. “What? No, I just…”

  
Jyn checked her wrist chrono, stared. He was right. She must have fallen asleep under the tree. More than five hours had passed.

  
“I was worried when I came back and couldn't find you,” he was saying. “You didn't answer when I called.”

  
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I was only going to sit here for a few minutes, maybe swim a little.”

  
He massaged the back of her neck. “It's alright. I suppose an unplanned nap under a tree, with your blaster right here, is fine.”

  
She laughed softly. “I do feel better now, though. About my parents. It was a dream, but… Mama likes you.”

  
He arched a brow. “Oh, she does, does she?”

  
“Mm. Yes. Said to trust you, that we're good together.”

  
“That we are.” He kissed her slowly. “I like the sound of a swim.”

  
“I don't have anything to swim in,” she pointed out.

  
Cassian's dark eyes turned smouldering. “The lake is part of a private estate. My brother won't be coming this way. He thinks we're having a, how did he put it? Assignation.”

  
She snickered. “Does he? Well, I'd hate to disappoint your brother.”

  
\-----

  
It wasn't until later, much later, that Jyn remembered her mother's final words during the dream.

  
_“Your father wasn't all we were hiding from the Empire.”_

  
\-----

  
Cassian had done a good job of finding her some clothes, boots aside, but Jyn wanted to pick out the rest of her new things. They went shopping--or as Cassian put it, in search of requisitions--in the four-story market near the centre of the capital city. Jyn had given up trying to pronounce anything. The locals spoke Basic with the visiting humans, which was fine with her. She spoke a fair amount of Huttese and a few other languages with less proficiency, but a lot of it wasn't intended for polite company. Dresselese wasn't one she'd heard before, let alone spoke.

  
They were examining the wares of a small arms dealer, Jyn with the latest BlasTech and Cassian eyeing a Verpine repeater that he'd already been told wasn't for sale, when a nearby conversation caught her attention.

  
“-Erso.”

  
“It's the Alliance. Everyone's wanted by the Empire.”

  
She turned as she set the blaster down. Two Dressellians stood at the back of the shop, watching a Holonet broadcast. It showed a woman who bore only a passing resemblance to her, and the words “Wanted: Escaped Convict Jyn Erso alias Liana Hallik.”

  
How had they connected her to her Liana Hallik alias? That wasn't a holo of her, but still.

  
Cassian noticed she wasn't looking at the goods anymore. He followed the direction of her gaze. “I changed the holo on your arrest record when I tracked you down. But…”

  
The Dressellians looked over at them and the one on the right turned the display off. “Don't worry,” he said in a gravelly voice. “No one here will turn you in. We're all against the Empire, and we know what you did for the Alliance.”

  
Beside her, Cassian said, “It's possible that they connected Hallik to us, but I don't see how they connected you to her.”

  
“I told Krennic who I was, just before you shot him. But he died on Scarif. He couldn't have told anyone. I haven't even gone by Jyn since I was a child.”

  
She found herself clasping the kyber crystal in her hand, the rough edges nearly worn smooth over time. Jyn tucked it back in her shirt and picked up the blaster she'd liked.

  
“I can think of two things,” Cassian said quietly. “Either we have a leak, or Krennic didn't die.”

  
\-----

  
The idea that Orson Krennic was still alive was arguably scarier to Jyn than the thought that there was a spy or double agent in the Alliance. Cassian could find the spy and kill them. He'd actually spent some time after they'd returned from the market--Jyn with new truncheons and two blasters as well as a pair of vibroshivs--ranting in a mix of his native tongue and Basic about how he was going to investigate everyone, even Draven, because Draven didn't have a problem ordering assassinations behind the council’s back.

  
So she wasn't worried about the possible leak.

  
But Krennic.

  
Krennic scared her. He had been her personal Lord Nyax, the horror that had stalked her through her life. He had taken her parents from her, torn apart her world, and then had destroyed so many others.

  
Cassian had shot him. She'd seen him unconscious. And the Death Star had destroyed Scarif. They'd had Krennic’s shuttle. He couldn't have survived to get away. They'd barely escaped themselves.

  
Had he survived long enough to transmit a message to the Empire, telling them her name?

  
Her urge was to run, to hide. Change her name and flee to the furthest reaches, live out her days in obscurity. She'd sworn before Scarif that she was done running, but old habits die hard.

  
Jyn found her peaceful vacation ruined. She was unable to sleep, haunted by visions of the man in white.

  
Three days after the holocast, Cassian found her lying on their bed, clutching the stupid Ewok that Wes Janson had given him and Jyn had claimed.

  
“Aren't you a little old for toys?” he asked teasingly.

  
She looked up at him with big, green eyes. “All I had in the hole was my doll. For hours, it was just me and… Kriff, I can't even remember its name, or what gender I'd decided it was. Just the two of us in the dark, for hours and hours, waiting for the man in white to find me and kill me like he'd killed Mama.”

  
Cassian sighed and stretched out beside her. “You're not alone anymore,” he told her. “You have me. You have Torean. Even if we can trust no one else. And if that bastard is still alive, I'll just kill him again. And again. I'll kill him as many times as you need, love.”

  
She rolled over, curling into him. “I've survived so much. But he… He's my boogeyman, Cassian, the monster under my bed.”

  
“And he'll be a very dead monster the next time I see him.”

  
He hugged her, nuzzling her hair. “Sleep, Jyn. You're safe here.”

  
And she felt that she was. The only one in her life who had ever come back when she needed them most was Cassian. She didn't blame him for her father’s death. She believed that he'd tried to call off the X-Wings the same way he'd believed her about her father’s message: with faith and trust. He said he'd keep her safe, and she trusted him.

  
It took a while to relax enough, but she finally did.

  
Even with the Ewok.


	7. Chapter 7

In an effort to keep his injured leg limber, Torean had taken first to morning walks, then jogging. He was thus gone when Jyn finally stumbled out of the bedroom while Cassian was eating breakfast, going over his datapad.

  
“Good morning,” he said, without looking up. He saw out of the corner of his eye that she wore his shirt from the day before and little else. It was distracting. “There's caf if you want some.”

  
Cassian knew by now that she generally didn't eat first thing when waking up. She frequently didn't eat until midday, subsisting on caf strong enough to peel the hull off a Star Destroyer.

  
“Mm.”

  
To his surprise, instead of going for the pot of caf he'd made, Jyn came over, nudged his chair out from the table with her bare foot, and pulled his datapad out of his grasp to set it on the table.

  
Then she sat in his lap, facing him, and bit her lip. “I was thinking,” she said.

  
He arched a brow, hands automatically going to her hips. Her bare thighs straddling his lap were more than distracting now. “What were you thinking, then?”

  
“I need a new name to go by. Can't use the Lianna Hallik alias, not when she's an escaped convict. And continuing to use Erso is not smart at this point, with the Empire looking for me. Jyn is common enough, I just need a new last name.”

  
Cassian nodded in thought, one hand stroking her thigh, the other sliding up under her shirt. “And you would like my help in thinking of one?”

  
“Sort of. It's more that I need to get documents and things.”

  
“Mmm. And what name did you have in mind?”

  
Jyn chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, green eyes not meeting his. “I was thinking ‘Andor’.”

  
His hands stilled. He wasn't sure he'd heard her right. “Pardon?”

  
He'd never really seen her uncertain before, but she definitely was now. She flushed, looking down.

  
“It's too soon, isn't it?” Jyn mumbled. “Too soon. I shouldn't have-”

  
She made to stand, pushing off his lap. Cassian caught her hand, dragged her back. He cupped her chin in his hand, made her look at him.

  
“Shush for a moment.”

  
She clamped her mouth shut, watching him like a frightened animal watches a predator.

  
“You're talking marriage,” he stated.

  
Jyn bit her lip, hesitated, then nodded. On a rush of breath, she whispered, “I love you. And we both- We're broken. But I feel like my pieces fit with yours, and I've never felt like this with anyone else. The fact that I'm even-”

  
Cassian wound his fingers into the silky strands of her hair. “Jyn. Breathe.”

  
She huffed a laugh. “I know it hasn't been long. But we could die any day. If I learned anything on Scarif, it's that… You're the most important thing to me. And maybe I'll scare you away, saying this. I don't let people in, Cassian. They leave. But you keep coming back and you keep being here, and I'm forgetting how to be alone.”

  
Jyn placed her hands over his heart. “I don't want to be alone. I want you.”

  
For several long moments, he didn't respond. It was as if she'd reached into his head and said everything he felt. He stroked her cheek with his thumb, just gazing at her.

  
“You have given me meaning, Jyn,” he murmured. “I was losing myself before you. I prefer the man I am with you. Of course.”

  
She frowned, brow furrowing. “Of course, what?”

  
Cassian smiled. “Yes. I would very much like to marry you, Jyn Erso.”

  
\-----

  
“Are the two of you barvy?” Torean demanded.

  
Jyn exchanged a look with Cassian. They'd both expected this, to be honest. She didn't speak, letting Cassian handle his brother.

  
“No. It solves a few problems, actually. Jyn needs to not go by Erso, since the Empire is looking for that name. And they'll be less likely to separate us on base if we're married.”

  
“You have known each other-” Torean stopped to do the math. “-eight weeks.”

  
Jyn shrugged. “I think what we've been through in that time, without coming to blows, gives us an excellent idea of how well we'll work out.”

  
Cassian dropped his chin to his chest. After a moment, he said, “Did you know, Jyn, out of the forty or so days we've known each other, the longest we have been apart was about thirteen hours?”

  
She blinked in surprise. “Really? I hadn't realised.”

  
“My time in the bacta tank on Yavin,” he said.

  
“Huh.”

  
“That still doesn't mean you know each other well enough to _get married_!” Torean pointed at Jyn. “What's her favourite colour?”

  
“Green,” Cassian said.

  
Jyn nodded. “And Cassian's is dark blue. He takes his caf with creamer, no sweetener, hates wine, and is terrified of Ewoks. No, I haven't paid attention to his shoe size but he knows my shirt size. I know that Cassian is the one man in this galaxy who knows me, who I trust to really know me.”

  
The brothers stared at each other for several moments, then Torean threw his hands in the air. “Fine! But do not cry to me when it implodes.”

  
“The Death Star,” Cassian said, “couldn't tear us apart. I think we will be fine.”

  
\-----

  
The locals were more than happy to marry them. The only problem was, they had a really antiquated law that stated females needed to be married in dresses.

  
Jyn could not recall ever owning a dress. She'd stolen one once, in the years after Saw had left her to fend for herself, but it had been a disguise quickly abandoned.

  
She didn't like skirts, didn't like the lack of pockets or all the frills and fuss. But a tiny part of her, that remembered Lyra Erso and her fancy dresses on Coruscant--just slivers from when she'd only been about four--wanted something more than just what she was wearing to marry Cassian in.

  
But she'd have no use for a dress after, had nowhere to store something nice, except on the _Stormrunner_. She couldn't see Torean agreeing to keep a fancy wedding gown in his hold.

  
“I hate dresses,” she muttered, staring at the racks of the things in the store she'd wandered into.

  
Cassian had had an errand to run. He'd suggested Torean go with her, but his brother's response had been, “What use would I be? I like men, not wonen’s clothing.”

  
So here she was, by herself, shopping for a dress she didn't want, for a wedding she wished desperately that her parents could be there for.

  
A female Dressellian came over. None of them had hair, and Jyn could see why many of the women wore dresses: it was virtually the only way to tell them apart. She smiled, which Jyn found a touch disconcerting.

  
“Are you looking for something particular?” The woman's gold gaze flicked over her, taking in the vest, sweater, pants, and the new boots Jyn was very fond of.

  
“I need a wedding dress. But I hate dresses. I'm not… feminine.”

  
The alien woman nodded, looking her up and down once more, slower this time. “I think I have just the thing.”

  
She motioned for Jyn to follow her. The dresses they passed were elaborate, some designed for Dressellians, some for humans or other species. A pink dress covered with black beads caught Jyn’s eye, but it wasn’t very her. Too fussy.

  
The shop owner stopped at a rack near the back of the store and the dressing rooms and pulled something from it, holding the length of material out to Jyn. “Try this.”

  
The material, at least, was interesting. It shifted colours from grey to pale green to light purple and back in a faint shimmer. It was soft, silky.

  
In the dressing room, Jyn stripped out of her regular clothes and slipped into the dress. It was basically just a sheath, falling straight to the floor, gathered at the waist with a bit of a draped thing over the bodice. She looked at herself in the mirror, turning this way and that.

  
It wasn’t fancy. But in it, Jyn felt pretty. And it had pockets, she discovered, which made her laugh.

  
She pulled the tie from her hair, letting it fall to her shoulders, waved from the bun she kept it in so much. Jyn ran her fingers through it, wondering if she should style it somehow.

  
There was a knock at the dressing room door. “Miss?”

  
Jyn pulled the door open. “I need an opinion.”

  
The shop keeper eyed her critically. “It suits you. But you need shoes. Boots do not go with that dress.”

  
\-----

  
Cassian wasn’t a nervous person. But standing at the government building, waiting for Jyn to arrive, had him sweating.

  
He wasn’t afraid of marrying her. Actually, little in his life had made more sense. It was more the importance of it that had him anxious. He wanted this to be perfect for her.

  
His fingers rolled the rings in his pocket, feeling the cool metal against his skin. Torean had had them made while he himself had been hunting for something to wear. If Jyn was buying a dress, he wouldn’t meet her wearing scruffy fatigues. So he’d dressed in black pants, shiny knee-high boots of the same hue, a dark blue shirt with a subtle shimmer, and a grey jacket that was almost black but not. All the pieces could be reused in disguises later, which had been part of his reasoning in getting them.

  
His brother eyed him critically. “Your outfit doesn’t match.”

  
“I don’t care.”

  
Torean rolled his eyes.

  
The door opened and Jyn walked in. She’d left her hair down, and while the dress she wore was simple, she was the most beautiful thing Cassian had ever seen. He was speechless as she walked towards them.

  
“Sorry I’m late,” she murmured. “I had to find shoes.”

  
She poked one foot out from under her skirt, showing grey slippers.

  
“You are beautiful,” he told her.

  
Jyn smiled, blushing. “Thank you,” she said softly.

  
The officiant cleared his throat. “Are we ready?”

  
As part of the ceremony, they had to state their full names. When Cassian said, “Cassian Jeron Andor,” Jyn said, “I don’t have a middle name. It’s just Jyn Erso.”

  
“Then Erso will be your middle name,” he told her. “Jyn Erso Andor.”

  
She smiled up at him, green eyes shining.

  
A ring exchange wasn’t part of the Dressellian wedding ceremony, but it was part of the culture where Cassian had grown up. When the ceremony was over, and they had been pronounced husband and wife, he pulled the rings from his pocket and held them out to her. They were made of steel, the metal crosshatched from intense heat and cold.

  
“Is that…?” Jyn’s wide eyes went from the rings to his face.

  
“I had them made from that piece of the Death Star I picked up on Yavin,” he told her solemnly. “To remind us of what we have survived and what we have defeated. They tried to kill us with this, but we won and we will build something new out of their failure.”

  
He slipped the ring onto her left hand, and she made a fist.

  
“And if we ever meet Krennic again,” he continued, “you can punch him in the face with it.”

  
She laughed aloud, a joyous sound that he adored. “I love you, Cassian Jeron Andor.”

  
“I love you, Jyn Erso Andor.”

  
Jyn slid his ring onto his finger, rubbing her fingers over it. “I like this. Did you know, when you picked up that chunk of metal, that you would do this?”

  
Cassian shook his head. “No. I had intended to use it as a paperweight. But this is better. And I still have most of it left.”

  
She nodded. “I need to go back and get some of my own. I didn’t pick up anything. But I feel I should.”

  
“We will. Some day.”

  
The three of them went to dinner. Then Torean decided that he was going to stay in town for the night and let them have the house to themselves. When the speeder dropped them off, Cassian swept Jyn up into his arms.

  
She laughed and looped her arms around his neck. “What are you doing?”

  
He grinned. Cassian didn’t think he’d ever heard her laugh as much, seen her smile as much, as she had today. “It is tradition on Fest,” he told her, “to carry the bride over the threshold. Actually, I think it was originally to keep her from dragging her dress in the snow and mud. But I'm supposed to carry you into the house.”

  
Jyn rested her head against this shoulder. “Alright. If it’s tradition.”

  
Once in the house, Cassian took her into the bedroom. To their mutual surprise, there were candles everywhere, and they hadn’t been burning long. The bed was covered with dressel flowers, fragrant pink blossoms with velvety petals.

  
“Did you arrange this?” Jyn asked softly.

  
He shook his head. “Probably Torean.”

  
Cassian set her down, letting her slide the length of his body. He pushed the mystery of the romantic decor out of his head as he kissed her.

  
“I’m so happy,” she told him as she broke the kiss. “Is that silly?”

  
“No. You deserve it.”

  
She reached up to cup his face in her hands. “So do you. We both do. No more guilt over surviving. The others wouldn’t want that, Cassian.”

  
“They would not,” he agreed quietly. “But enough of that. Tonight is about us.”

  
He pushed one thin strap of her dress off her shoulder, following it with his mouth as he bent his head. Jyn sighed, fingers clenching in his shirt. Cassian pulled her against him, moulding his hands to her body through the thin shimmersilk of her dress.

  
“Where did you get this dress?” he asked against her shoulder.

  
“The shop owner wouldn’t accept anything for it,” she told him. “When she found out who I was, she insisted I take it. Said it was the least she could do for an Alliance hero.”

  
“So you wouldn’t take a medal, but you would take a dress,” he chuckled.

  
She laughed softly. “The medal means nothing. The dress is … different.”

  
Cassian turned his attention to the other strap. Jyn shrugged out of the bodice, letting it fall around her waist and exposing her small, perky breasts. He loved them, though she had lamented they were too small. He ducked his head, guiding her back to the bed as he captured one pink nipple in his mouth.

  
She gasped his name, something he decided he would never get tired of hearing. He pushed the dress off her hips to puddle on the floor, leaving her in a scrap of panties and her slippers.

  
Jyn pushed the jacket from his shoulders and he let it join her dress, before she attacked his shirt, yanking it from his pants.

  
“We have all night,” he reminded her, releasing her nipple in order to speak.

  
“Don’t care,” she said breathlessly. “I want you now.”

  
Her small hands slid over his chest. “Make love to me, Cassian,” she whispered. “Please.”

  
“Get the covers,” he told her roughly, and set about getting his clothes off.

  
Jyn tossed the covers back, sending a cascade of flowers and petal to the floor. He grabbed her and they tumbled to the bed. Even though they had made love before, they focused on going slow, memorising every inch of each other with hands and mouths.

  
Finally, he moved over her, surging into her, and Jyn wrapped herself around him, arching into him.

  
“I love you,” she told him, over and over. “I love you.”

  
He kissed her passionately, losing himself in loving her. And when she fell apart beneath him, he threw himself over that edge and followed her down.

  
\-----

  
They spent two glorious days by themselves in the house. It reminded Jyn of their time on the shuttle, but without life-threatening injuries or grief they’d tried desperately to distract themselves from.

  
On the third day, Cassian got a message from Draven, asking why they hadn’t reported in about possible base locations.

  
Cassian sent back, “Working on it. Encountered some delays. More information soon.”

  
But it was a chilling reminder that they didn’t have their lives to themselves, and that someone out there had put a price on her head. Reluctantly, they packed up and returned to the ship.

  
Gathered in the cockpit, they plotted their next destination. Jyn leaned against the back of Cassian’s seat, where he sat in the copilot chair, one hand reached up to clasp hers. She toyed with his wedding ring as she rested her head against his.

  
“On the subject of actual places the Rebellion could use,” Torean drawled, “we need a place with space, out of the way of the Imperial eye, pre-existing structures preferably, and room for our ships.”

  
Jyn thought suddenly of beaches of black sand and mossy fields, light reflecting off space dust caught in rings high in the sky above. Why hadn't it occurred to her before?

  
“I know a place,” she said slowly.

  
Her brother-in-law arched a brow and she could suddenly see the resemblance to Cassian. “Where?”

  
She rattled off the coordinates. He entered them into the navicomputer. It was in the Outer Rim, Varada Sector, way out near the edge of the Western Reaches.

  
Torean frowned. “It's not pulling up any planets.”

  
“That's the point,” she told him. “Let's at least go see what's left.”

  
“Left?” he echoed, but she didn't respond.

  
She just smiled faintly and went back to the lounge.

  
“You know where we're going?” Torean asked his brother.

  
Cassian shook his head.

  
The elder Andor brother shrugged and pulled the lever to send them into hyperspace.

  
\-----

  
Cassian's first impression of the planet, after thirty-six hours in hyperspace, was that it wasn't much to look at. It was ringed, nearly perpendicular to the plane of the system, with dense cloud cover. It had taken them a few creative hyperspace hops to reach, and Cassian privately thought maybe they'd reached the ass end of the galaxy.

  
Could have been worse, though. Could have been the Unknown Regions.

  
Jyn was quiet as Torean brought the ship in, green eyes wide as she studied the landscape.

  
“Only life forms registering seem to be wildlife,” Torean said. “I do see structures, though. Farms?”

  
Jyn pointed out the viewport. “There. See the gully near that beach? We can land there.”

  
The ship settled on loamy soil, the landing struts sinking in a little. Cassian went to the ramp, Torean close behind. They stepped down onto the dark earth, and Jyn hesitated at the top of the ramp.

  
“Jyn?” her husband asked. He'd never seen that particular expression on her face before. He held out his hand.

  
She took a breath, descended the ramp, and took his hand. Without a word, she led them out of the low gully, into what appeared to have been crop fields. Old, rusty vaporators listed or had fallen over, some of them showing scorching.

  
There was a soft drizzle of rain, the air itself damp and almost uncomfortably cool. Jyn had pulled on a poncho before leaving the ship and had a scarf around her head and neck. Cassian wished he’d followed her example and brought a coat.

  
“The water is too mineral-laden for drinking,” Jyn said quietly, speaking for the first time since they'd actually landed. “We’d need new vaporators. But the soil is excellent for crops.”

  
She paused as they crossed the field grown wild and stopped, looking towards the dark beach. They were caught halfway between the water and a visibly burned-out building nestled against a low foothill.

  
Cassian wove his fingers through hers. He'd suspected since she'd given them the coordinates, but her face confirmed it for him.

  
“This is where my mother died,” she told them. “I was hiding behind that rise over there. She tried to stop Krennic from taking my father, and his bodyguards shot her.”

  
He stepped close, pressing a kiss to her temple.

  
Torean looked around with more than a little dismay. “Where are we?”

  
“This is Lah’mu,” Jyn said. “This was my home.”

  
Cassian wrapped his arm around her. “It will work for us,” he declared. “Even if just for a little while, it will be our home, too.”

  
The smile she gave him then was the same she'd bestowed on him on Scarif, when he'd saved her from Krennic. This, too, he'd save for her. He couldn't fix the past, but he could do his damnedest to redeem this place for her.

  
“Yes,” she agreed. “Home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a sequel in the works, but I won't be posting it until it's finished, because of my terrible habit of starting something and then not finishing.


End file.
